Lost and Found
by plaguemysoul
Summary: Eric finds a tiny human sleeping outside the back entrance of Fangtasia beneath a cardboard box. Sookie is a 10 year old, having ran away from home due to troubles that Eric soon will find out. When Eric decides to take her in, can he help her, along with Pam's assistance? What would happen if Sookie grew up around vampires at an early age? Eventual older Sookie. AU.
1. Chapter 1

_**Hey guys. Sorry I keep writing new stories; This idea came to me and I thought it would be fun to write, where Sookie is a 10-year-old, troubled homeless girl and Eric finds her, where they get up to all kinds of mischief together. It's probably silly but I would love to know your thoughts whether it is something worthy of continuing, just as something fun?**_

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 _ **Lost and Found**_

 _ **EPOV:**_

At first, Pam and I had assumed there were just cats hanging around outside the bar. Particularly near the area where the bins were located.

We started hearing strange crying noises every single time one of us stepped outside. The cries had certainly sounded like nothing more than a litter of pissy, little stray kittens mewling for their mother to return with milk at the time, so neither Pam nor I felt concerned enough to do anything about it.

Yet, tonight, as I threw on my leather jacket while walking towards the back entrance, preparing to leave the premises as I had work to do as part of my duties as Sheriff of the area, I heard that concerning noise again.

There was a soft sobbing noise, followed by the sound of a body scraping against cardboard. It had been drizzling with rain tonight, and as I followed the noises, treading around the corner of the dustbin, I noticed something was majorly different than how it usually was.

There was a flattened piece of cardboard box laying sideways against the wall, and I knew beyond the shadow of a doubt then that something- or someone- was huddled against the wall beneath it, trying to keep warm with the cardboard acting as shelter from the drizzle.

As I listened carefully, I also let myself sniff around while trying to keep as quiet as humanly possible on the soles of my leather boots as I walked around near the bin.

I could hear a human's heart beating furiously in their chest. I could tell the difference between a humans heartbeat, and an animals; It definitely sounded human to me. Maybe it was a drunk and pathetic human who decided to camp out here for the night, rather than having to face the reality of going home and getting shit from their loved ones? Or maybe it was just a homeless bum who decided to make a resting place out of our back entrance of Fangtasia for the night?

Either way, I decided I would very much like to find out. Now was good enough a time as any.

Using the tip of my boot, I edged it under the bottom of the cardboard box. Then with one light and gentle kick, the box fell away, leaving what was previously hidden unconcealed to me.

What I saw, it made my eyes widen and my breath hitch in my throat. What the hell was this?

It was no homeless bum, or a drunken fool. It was no kitten either but a child; A little girl with matted, dark blonde hair, who screamed shrilly at me as I looked down at her. She made herself smaller, huddling into a ball; covering both her head and her face in her arms. She was only wearing a grotty white T-shirt and torn jeans, with old shoes, and she looked to be trembling violently. She was freezing. As for myself, I no felt neither hot nor cold no more; The varying temperatures of hot and cold no longer affected me. But this little thing, she was suffering.

While I liked to put on a show and a heartless bravado every now and then, I didn't believe I was that heartless as not to feel sorry for some pathetic little human girl.

I crouched down easily in front of, noticing the jerk of her body at my movement. Poor little girl, she was petrified of me. And, usually, humans had good reason to be. I was not above and beyond harming a little human, I admitted; Though, with this one, I had no desire to hurt her in the slightest, considering she already seemed to be hurting.

I cleared my throat gently before forcing myself to speak, in a hopefully gentle and harmless voice, "Hello there, little girl. Have you been the one that has been out here all this time for weeks now? The one that was making all of those... kitten-sounding noises?"

She peeked through her arm at me, showing me wide, fearful light brown eyes.

"Y-yes," she squeaked out quietly. "I... I think it was me?"

"And why is that? Why aren't you at home with your family?"

"I... I don't got one anymore," she whispered, finally taking her arms away from her face. She laid them down over her stomach tightly, as though that alone would protect her from me. "I... I had nowhere else." Tears trickled down her cheeks silently as she stared at me forlornly with a loud sniffle through her nose. She had a Southern twang to her tiny voice. "Please, you don't got to... to hurt me, mister. I... I can leave."

I felt a strange sensation at her pleading; I felt a tightness around my chest, though I couldn't be certain what that was. Maybe she had me feeling a little sentimental by how tragic she was?

Despite it all, I felt the corner of my mouth twitch while I tried to suppress a smile. "And what makes you think I would stoop so low as to hurt a defenseless little girl like you?" I asked her quietly.

"Because you..." She hesitated for a moment, her entire face trembling. "You're one of them, aren't you? I... I saw it when you-all came out on the news? You're... your a vampire, aren't you, mister?"

"Indeed." How perceptive she was, this little girl. "Am I that obvious to you?"

"N-not exactly," she said in her tiny voice. "You just... you're just quieter than all the rest."

I arched an eyebrow at her skeptically. "Quieter?" I had no idea what that was supposed to mean.

"Y-yes, q-quieter."

I scrutinized her carefully, from her head, down to her toes. All the clothes she was wearing were extremely dirty and stained, tattered and torn. It was truly no wonder she was so fucking cold. When I looked her face over carefully, I saw she had a graze on her left cheekbone. It seemed recent to me; Dried red blood was smeared across it. Without realizing it, I let my tongue slip through my lips, licking them. I could only just imagine how she would taste; A child's blood always tastes purer, less... contaminated.

She swallowed loudly, a terrified gulp slipping through her. More tears trickled down her cheeks, her eyes welling over.

Clearing my throat again, I tried to distract myself from the musings of how good she would taste, and instead extracted my fangs. She heard the noise they made as they did, of course. She huddled ever so closer to the wall, but I paid her no attention, bringing up my thumb to rip it open with my left fang. Then when as I inched closer, I could smell her, all her fear. Hear the way her heart was beating loud and clear. Her lips parted as a shaky breath escaped her. She thought I was going to kill her, but instead, I showed her the sliced open skin on my thumb.

"Relax, little girl," I told her very seriously, trying to keep her calm. "I just want to help with that cut on your cheek."

Her eyes watched me, disbelieving as I inched closer. When I finally ran my thumb over her cheek, coating her scrape with my blood, she clenched her eyes shut tightly for a moment, breathing heavily like I was paining her. Then once I felt satisfied with my work, I leaned back, and she reopened her eyes. The skin on her cheek had healed up completely now; It was just stained red from my blood marking her.

She sniffled loudly again then exhaled before putting a few slender fingers to her cheek over the wound, feeling around. I caught her brown eyes widening in amazement; No doubt she was now both shocked and relieved that the sore on her cheek was gone.

"Oh, wow," she gushed breathlessly after a moment, before she started sobbing silently again, her chin wobbling.

I had officially made up my mind then; I would invite her inside to the club. It was still under operating hours and packed with humans, but if I could sneak her into my office, she would be both safe and warm there. Pam was not going to be pleased about it, as she both feared and disliked human children, but tough shit.

"Your cold, little girl. You can come inside where there is shelter. The bar is still open and it is bound to be loud with the music, but you can stay in my office for a little while, just until the rain dies down, at the very least."

I stood to my feet again, watching her eye me up and down in suspicion. I guess I couldn't blame her. After all, I did have the tendency of scaring the shit out of humans.

"Why?" she demanded, her voice going surprisingly strong. Honestly, I didn't believe a thing so pathetic and tiny could have it in her. "Why should I go in there with you? I don't know you. For... for all I know, y-y-you could be lying through your teeth just to trick me?" Her teeth started chattering.

While her suspicions were annoying, it was understandable, I suppose.

I sighed loudly, trying to appear as non-threatening as possible. Which, for me, wasn't exactly easy. I hunched my shoulders forward, trying to seem shorter and less... imposing somehow. "Do I look as though I am going to hurt you?" I asked her, blinking down at her.

Her eyes trailed up and down me again as she shrugged. "I... I don't know."

"Well, I can promise you this; I have no intentions of hurting you." I tried to look sincere as to ease her mind. "While I admit that I have killed a human around your age before, I have no plans to add another one to that list anytime soon. Now will you come inside?"

The girl seemed to hesitate for a long minute, before finally pulling herself up to her feet. Goddamn, was she small. She hardly reached my stomach. Thin, too. She was lanky and all bony, most likely due to lack of good food. As I made my way back through the door, I held it open for her. She walked behind me, at a slow pace, and I could feel her still watching me, almost paranoid that I was about to instantly flip a switch and attack her.

Once I reached my office and waved her in, I thought it became apparent to her that I did mean what I said. Her shoulders slackened from their rigid, defensive stance, and she let out a long breath as she looked around the red-walls of my office curiously. I caught her staring at one of the advertisements on the wall; One that featured a nude woman spreadeagled out on a sofa with blood trailing down her body.

She made a huff of disgust, shaking her head. "Eww, how rude," she grumbled under her breath, and I couldn't help but laugh out loud.

Tiny humans could be so funny when they wanted to be. I could tell she was going to be especially humorous to have around.

Then I noticed the smears of dirt she had bought in on the carpet when she walked in from her dirty shoes. In fact, she was literally sopping wet, ruining the floor with all the rain water that dripped from her long, mangy hair, from her old clothes.

Moving around my office, I found one of my old jackets that I no longer wore anymore. When I shook it out, offering it to her to put on so that she would be warm and, _hopefully,_ to stop her dripping everywhere and ruining the carpet, she eyed me like I was strange.

"Here," I said impatiently, shaking the jacket at her. "Put this on. You'll feel warmer that way."

When she just stared at me, I got fed up, so I tossed it at her. It landed over her head and she made a girly squeal of laughter before she yanked it off her head. For once, she was grinning at me, her eyes crinkled. She had a gap between her front teeth.

"Do you have a name, little girl?" I asked her curiously, wondering if she would actually tell me.

"I do. Who doesn't have a name?" She laughed to herself again while struggling to slip her arms through the sleeves of my jacket. Once properly on, I almost laughed again. The jacket swamped her entire body, the end of it going down past her knees. She looked as though she was getting eaten alive by my jacket. "I'm Sookie."

"Sookie?" I repeated quietly. I had no idea whether she was lying or not, but her name was... odd, to say the least. "Your name is Sookie?"

"Yes. And yours is?"

"Eric. Eric Northman."

Yes, it certainly could brighten up the atmosphere in having a small girl here. Even if I didn't know the full story, of why she no longer had a family, or why she was now living out on the street.

But I figured I'd learn all about that later...


	2. Chapter 2

**Thank you so much for your kind reviews! And I really hope you enjoy this one :)**

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 _ **Chapter Two**_

Sookie started dragging her feet while she looked around my office curiously. She was still shivering wildly, despite having my old jacket on her; Her teeth were chattering as she hummed quietly to herself. Every now and then she would turn to look at me with her head angled to the side, as though making sure I was still there in the room with her.

All I could manage to do was simply stand there uselessly, watching her. I felt a bit like she was an alien from another planet. Her reactions to things were... confusing.

A strange gurgling sound came from her, and she clutched both hands over her stomach. "I'm awfully hungry," she said to me, her voice coming out a sad little whine.

I gave her a fake smile. "Er, yes. I can both see and hear that, little girl," I muttered awkwardly, without knowing what more to say about it.

"I can't even remember the last time I ate anything. My stomach grumbles all the time and sometimes, it hurts real badly too."

"Oh, really? What a shame then, Sookie..."

I could see what she was angling at; She wanted me to offer her some food, and if I had some on me, I honestly would have. I mean, what could I do? Offer her a bottle of synthetic blood and hope that it could efficiently fill up her tummy? We didn't provide food in Fangtasia, aside from beer nuts.

She gave me a look that made me feel almost instantly bad for her. I could tell that, if she kept looking at me in that particular way - her eyes wide with a frown, her eyebrows pulled down- that she could probably get a man to do anything for her. Kids nowadays must be so effective with their manipulation tactics.

I was quickly wondering whether I had gotten myself into a situation I was inept to deal with. In all my thousand of years, I had dealt with many things. Looking after a human girl, was not one of those.

How was I meant to do this? What was I meant to do with her now?

Far as I was concerned, I felt I did not have the experience nor the ability to deal with this. I hadn't spent time around little children before; Adults were more in my line of expertise, both vampire and human. Maybe Pam would be better at handling this? Surely Pam would have some natural... motherly instincts within her?

Hell, who am I kidding? Pam was never the motherly sort.

I could hear that the rain had settled down outside. Was I meant to just drag the girl back outside and set her loose, like she was some stray dog? A part of me believed she deserved better. This was no animal, this was a tiny human girl. I couldn't exactly just wish her all the best and send her back outside on the streets, could I?

Even to me, that sounded extremely wrong. Callous of me.

Making my mind up, I went behind my desk, clicking down on the button that would direct the call straight to my progeny. I would call Pam, get her to go off on an errand where she could pick some clothes suitable for a little girl, as well as some food. I had a feeling Pam would know better about dressing a girl than I ever would. I had no idea how old Sookie was; For all I knew, she could still be a baby, an infant. Telling children's ages just by how they looked was not something I was skilled at.

There was two clicks, then she answered curtly, "What now?"

"Pam, I need you to go down to Walmart and find some clothes for a little girl," I said straightforwardly at the top of my head. "And some food. Some human food."

"Why the fuck would I need to do that?" I winced when Pam's voice came through the speakers. Sookie's head whipped into my direction, her mouth open in outrage at Pam's curse-word. I'd have to tell Pam later to really dial down the bad words, seeing as now we had a new pint-sized addition to our family. "Getting clothes for a little girl?"

I sighed loudly in frustration. Turning away on my side so that Sookie couldn't see or hear me, I lowered my voice, grumbling through my teeth, "Enough with the questions, Pam. I'll tell you later. Can you just go down to Walmart already and find some clothes suitable for a girl?"

"Fine," Pam huffed out. "And how old are we talking here?"

Shit, why did she have to go and ask me that? Like I'd even know.

I glanced back behind my shoulder at Sookie who was still watching me with wide eyes. It couldn't hurt to ask her, could it? "Sookie, how old are you?" I asked her, trying to sound innocuous in tone.

"I'm ten. Ten and a half." Her voice went high in excitement. "I turn eleven in May next year."

"Ten, Pam," I explained through the speaker. "I need you to get me clothes for a ten year old girl. Walmart is your safest bet. They sell children's clothes there, don't they?" As far as I was aware of, Walmart was the only store for humans that did. "And yes, you can use my credit card," I added before Pam could so much as even start to ask. "Don't forget the food, either."

I clicked the button to end the call and sank down heavily into my chair, putting my face in my hands for a minute. Already, this was proving far too stressful. Maybe I should have just shoved the girl back out onto the street while I had the chance?

I could feel the girl staring at me, and when I lifted my head from out of my hands, surely enough, she was. She was standing on the spot, swaying with her knees slightly. Her tiny fingers were laced around her stomach.

Her skin smelled damp from the rain and as though she hadn't had a proper wash in years. We had a shower downstairs that both Pam and myself used, only I didn't want to push any boundaries in taking her down there and risking the chance of making her feel uncomfortable. Maybe I could boss Pam into washing her for me?

"As you no doubt just heard, I called my friend Pam," I said to her in a fake overly nice and slow voice, because I didn't know how to term it otherwise in a way that she could properly understand. "She's going to go get you some clothes and some food for you. Hopefully you'll feel warmer and less hungry then."

She shrunk further away from me, nodding once to show she understood. "Okay," she said softly.

"We just have to be patient and wait until she gets back. It shouldn't take her more than half an hour."

"Okay," she said again, even quieter than before.

Now what was I supposed to do with her? Keep talking to her? Command her to sit in the chair like a good little girl while I went out into the bar, entertaining the vermin and making sure everything ran smoothly? Finally I found something that I could keep her occupied with; I found a blank sheet of paper and different colored pens and the girl seemed happy enough to just sit in my chair at my desk scrawling and drawing. By the time Pam arrived back and made herself known by knocking twice on the door, I almost felt like laughing out loud, I was that fucking relieved.

"Come in, Pam."

When she did, she stopped dead still near the door, her eyes flying instantly to Sookie, who was humming to herself while drawing at my desk, her shoulders hunched, strands of her dark, limp hair hanging over her face. All the grocery bags Pam was holding fell to the ground. While Pam had probably gathered that there was a child considering how I had asked her to go out on her errand and get clothes for one, clearly she was not expecting a child to be sitting in my office the way Sookie was.

"Eric, what _the fuck_ is that?" she got out under her breath in shock.

I hushed her quickly, looking at Sookie to make sure she hadn't heard. Fortunately, she was still deep in her drawing. "Dial it down with the bad words, Pam," I warned her. "And remember those noises that we were hearing out back? The cat crying sounds?"

Pam placed both hands on her hips, squinting up at me, wondering where I was going with this. "Of course I do."

"Well, it wasn't a cat. It was actually a little girl." I jerked my chin over in her direction. " _That_ little girl, in fact. Her name is Sookie."

"This is all jolly good and well, but _why_ is she in here?"

"She's in here because I told her that she could be in here," I explained to her, keeping my voice hushed and low. "It was raining outside and she looked cold. I mean, what else could I do?"

"How about leaving her outside where she belongs? Or killing her, at the very least?" Pam pegged two fingers over her nose. "Jesus Christ, Eric, she smells like piss and shit. You bought her into your office even though she smells like that?"

Now she was really starting to piss me off. "And that's where you come in, Pam," I hissed at her in irritation, taking her by the arm and hauling her out of the door for some privacy so the girl wouldn't hear us. "You are going to take Sookie downstairs, and then you are going to wash her in the shower so that the smell of piss and shit no longer reeks off of her. Am I making myself clear?"

Pam gave me a look with her eyebrows lifted; One of her _are-you-shitting-me_ looks.

"Surely, you can't be-"

"-Well, I _am_ serious, Pam!" I blasted back at her. "Take the clothes you bought for her from Walmart with you and bring her downstairs to the shower so that she smells clean and no longer like piss! Then you dress her and bring her back upstairs to me!"

"I don't even want to go near that thing while she smells like that. Especially not wearing these fucking shoes!" Pam waved her hand down at her black leather pumps frantically. "These are my favorite pair! Christian Louboutin!"

"Well, tough, Pam. Take your pumps off or change into some other ones, I hardly care which. But _you will_ take the little girl downstairs and you _will_ give her a wash. And besides, as your maker, I command you to."

Barely forty minutes later, I heard Pam's heels clicking and the shuffling of bare feet which announced their return. When Sookie came into the room first cautiously, I was astounded by how much difference a good wash and a change of clothes made. She smelt better and not as offensive, and like shit or piss. Her hair was still damp, but she looked warm and clean at the very least. Pam had dressed her in pink track-pants and a pink shirt that had a cartoon dog on it. Well, I was assuming it was a dog anyway.

"She ate everything I gave her. She practically inhaled it in."

"Good work, Pam," I said to her as Pam entered, standing by the doorway. I could tell she was still angry at me. Her arms were folded across her chest. "How do you like your new clothes?" I asked Sookie, deliberately changing my tone.

Sookie looked down at her clothes before shrugging. She started fiddling with her sleeves as she looked down at them. Then she made a loud noise through her mouth. A yawn, I think?

"You tired, little girl?" I asked her, unable to stop myself from smiling at her.

She nodded once, bringing up a hand up to rub around her eyes with her fingers. When I threw a quick look at the time by the clock hanging on the wall, I realized it was already well over twelve thirty in the evening; Way past a little girl's bedtime.

Now here was another dilemma. Where could she sleep? Both Pam and I slept in coffins downstairs, but she couldn't, could she? Something told me it would only serve to scare her, sleeping in a coffin. Yet where else could she sleep? It wasn't like we had any beds.

"Pam, take Sookie downstairs and put her to bed in your coffin." I only said it mainly because I knew how Pam would react, and she definitely did not disappoint on that; Her mouth popped open and she looked murderous, as though she wanted to silver me in the groin for suggesting such a thing. "I'm just kidding, Pam," I told her with a laugh, once the enjoyment of teasing her passed.

I leaned forward off the chair closer to Sookie, folding my hands in my lap.

"Pam and I both sleep in coffins, Sookie. We don't have beds to sleep in, but... if you would prefer it, you could always sleep up here on the couch with some blankets? We would just need to lock the door extra securely then so that you would be safe?" I studied her face carefully. "Would you prefer to sleep up here instead?"

It definitely seemed to be past her bedtime; She could hardly keep her eyes open, and she was swaying on her feet slightly.

Startling me, she held her arms open wide to me, and I leaned back in the chair in confusion. What was she trying to say by doing that? I shook my head at her in confusion when she shook her open arms at me. What was I supposed to do?

 _Pity there wasn't a book called 'Ten Year Old's For Dummies...'_

"Are you blind?" Pam said from the doorway, like she thought I was being daft. "She _clearly_ wants you to put her to bed."

"What?" I couldn't possibly do that...

When Sookie ran forward, I felt as though someone had just staked me through the chest when I felt her throw her bony arms around my neck. Children could be so frightening sometimes.

"Can you carry me to bed?" she asked softly with another yawn, and I thought I realized then. Pam was actually right. Of course Pam would understand more about children than I would. It was only natural.

I lifted her up in my arms and she hardly weighed next to anything. I nodded to Pam while carrying her from my office, all the way past the bar, and downstairs. When I started treading down the concrete steps, Sookie placed her cheek against my shoulder, her arms tightening around me. I sure as fuck was not expecting something like this to happen.

Once I reached my coffin, it proved a difficulty in unlocking her arms from around my neck. I had to push her off, and as she fell on the soft padding inside my coffin, I heard her murmur contently while turning on her back towards me, her eyes closed, "Night, Daddy."

 _Daddy?_ "What? I'm not your-"

Her eyes opened suddenly. As if she had brutally been shaken awake, she looked at me in a distinctively startled way, wrapping her arms over herself tightly. "No, _your not_ my daddy," she corrected herself bitterly with a sniffle, her voice slurry. "My daddy's dead, just like my Mama is." Then her eyes grew heavy and they closed just as suddenly. At least she had no trouble with falling asleep quickly; That definitely made things easier, otherwise I wouldn't have known what more to do.

Pam was still waiting for me in my office once I got back upstairs. She was leaning with her back against my desk. "What the hell are you thinking, Eric?" she asked, as I came to stand by her. "Bringing a human girl in here?"

"That's the problem, Pam. I guess I wasn't thinking. I felt sorry for her. She clearly has nowhere else to go." I sighed loudly through my teeth. "She just told me that both her parents are dead. She definitely has nowhere else to go right now."

"So what are you gonna do with her?"

 _If only I knew._ "Well, I was thinking of maybe keeping her?"

"Keeping her? She's not some fucking dog that you take home, Eric. She's a human girl that cries and shits." A wry smile came across Pam's face. "Then again, she might be fun. She can be my little doll that I can play dress up with."

 **Hope you enjoyed this one? :P Thank you, its probably a strange idea. Sookie will gradually get older as the story progresses. Sookie is still a telepath and I'll reveal why she ran away very soon. :)**


	3. Chapter 3

_**I own nothing to do with TB. Just a fan who enjoys writing probably silly stories.**_

 _ **Thank you all so much for your lovely reviews and alerts, its so flattering. I was shocked by the such encouraging response I received over this idea. Thank you! Hope this one isn't a disappointment! You are all so amazing!**_

* * *

 _ **Chapter 3**_

For the past century, life has been boring. Boredom had been my constant companion of late; The nights had become monotonous and repetitive. When you get as old as I am, admittedly life can lose its certain spark, its thrill.

At least things would possibly change with Sookie, if we kept her. It was bound to be both challenging and confusing, having her around. But it also seemed mildly rewarding; something strong enough to break that dull monotony that both Pam and I were experiencing.

I would be the first to admit that we weren't very organized. The very last thing Pam and I thought we would ever be doing, was allowing a miniature human to live with us. But I could see, biggest surprise of all, that Pam was immediately starting to warm up to the idea. She particularly liked the idea of having a mini-human around to both dress up like a plaything and also to order around, I could tell.

I assumed it was as simple as looking after a pet; Keep it well fed and give it generous amounts of water so it wouldn't get dehydrated. It also needed an adequate sleeping area. Only difference was, that this pint-sized pet could talk and respond back to us. It had feelings and troubles of its own.

I wasn't completely ignorant of how to look after a human child at least; I knew Sookie would wake during the day, which was another issue entirely. Both Pam and I slept during the day. How could we keep her safe and occupied if she was awake all by herself during the daylight hours?

The only humans we had employed at Fangtasia currently were the go-go dancers, like Yvetta, or Ginger, one of the barmaids. Ginger seemed the most suitable and likely victim to look after Sookie during the day out of the two.

While Ginger was not very sharp-witted nor intelligent, she remained loyal to us, perhaps even woefully so. Pam and I had glamoured her too many times to count; Her brain was probably scrambled mush, but surely she would have that natural instinct to look after a little girl? After all, didn't women always?

"Someone is going to have to look after Sookie during the day," I told Pam sensibly while moving back behind my desk, sitting in my chair. "Ginger?"

Pam made a face at me.

"Unless you have any other suggestions?" I shoved my feet up on my desk, leaning back in the chair. "Yvetta could always do that, but we don't exactly want her teaching Sookie how to fling herself around a strippers pole now, do we?"

She doesn't have any better suggestions. "Fine, I'll go bring her in. It's better her than Yvetta." Once she reached the door, she turned back to look at me, "Ginger's gonna think your calling her in here is because you want to fuck her dry against your desk."

"And doesn't she always think that, Pam?" Ginger made it no secret that she was interested in us having sex with each other. On every chance she got, she would practically throw herself at me. She could be pathetic and desperate, but I admit, she was extremely useful to have around.

Barely a few seconds later, I could hear Ginger tottering towards my office in her heels. She was breathing heavily like a dog in heat.

Once she finally came into view, she draped herself against the door-frame, placing one arm longways against it while her other hand was braced against her hip. Her cleavage was heaving through her shirt. "Well, well, well. What's this? You needing me now or something, sexy?" She smiled at me in a way that was annoyingly overeager.

"Yes. Ginger, dear; What are you doing this week during the daylight hours?"

She waved a hand in the air dismissively, "Well, I ain't doing nothing much. What you asking for?"

"Because I need you to be here first thing in the morning all this week. There's a little girl that will be staying here from now on. Her name is Sookie."

"Oh." Ginger's face fell as it sunk in that I was not asking her in for any special reason, like having decided to fuck her. She recovered quickly though, smiling at me again. "Well, whatever you say, boss man! Sure, I can do that!"

"Excellent. Be here by at least seven-thirty in the morning, and no later. Sookie is unaware of her whereabouts right now, so you'll have to come collect her downstairs."

I dismissed her with a stoic nod, yet she stood there, watching me expectantly. "Um, so... anything else I can do for you while I'm here? Anything at all?"

"No, that is all, sweetheart. Run along now."

She sighed heavily in disappointment before finally turning around and leaving me alone in my office. At least Ginger could be counted on as dependable.

Once the bar reached closing hour, all the members of staff had left the premises, and everything was securely locked up, Pam and I went to go to ground. I found the girl fast asleep in my coffin.

It was strange having a little human sleeping in my coffin, but she looked comfortable. Her hands were tucked into her chest protectively while her short legs were spread out, taking up all the room, her long hair still damp and splayed around her head. It was bound to be incredibly squashy, me sleeping in the coffin next to her. Being as tall as I was, it was bound to be a tight and excruciating fit.

I decided I might as well share Pam's coffin with her, seeing as it would be easier. There was a time where, when Pam was newly made, she would have preferred me to sleep in the coffin with her. Clearly the times have changed.

"The fuck do you think you're doing?" Pam snapped when I went to get in with her. Already, Pam had made herself comfortable, lying on her back with her hands folded out in front of her.

"What?" I asked her in confusion. "I thought that, seeing as the girl's in mine, that I could-"

"-Like hell you are," she muttered in protest. "You made your bed, now you've got to go lie in it."

"Fine," I grumbled under my breath, not at all pleased. "Fair enough, Pam."

 _Well, this was going to be uncomfortable._ Not once did I ever predict that I would have to share a coffin with a little girl. I have to move her, yet the idea of disturbing her and waking her up from her sleeping isn't something I want to do.

Trying to be as gentle as possible, I pushed her closer to the side of the coffin, trying to make more space for myself. When I climbed it, it was every bit as uncomfortable and constricted as I first assumed it would be. Sookie's tiny elbow dug unpleasantly into me, and I didn't believe I could ever be the type to be claustrophobic until just then.

I heard her move and before I knew it, she had rolled over with one her arms slung on my chest and she was cuddling me. She lifted her head to nestle her chin into my shoulder, and she made a strange sound that I assumed sounded vaguely content. At least she wasn't sticky, like other human children could be. No sticky hands or fingers.

 _Yeah, this was gonna take some time to get used to._

* * *

"Sookie said that Ginger's mind voice told her that she wanted to have your babies," Pam told me the next night as we both dressed after rising. I had sent Pam up to check on Sookie, and she came back downstairs to inform me that, fortunately, the little girl was safe, upstairs in my office drawing. "Sookie then asked if Ginger or I were your wife."

My head snapped back over to Pam in bewilderment while I was halfway through buttoning up my shirt. "Ginger what? And _mind voice_?" I had no idea what a _mind voice_ was exactly. Then again, I thought I heard somewhere that children were highly imaginative.

"I swear there is something _hugely_ different about her," Pam went on thoughtfully while making up her face with some ivory powder. "I don't know about you, but she doesn't smell like any normal small human does. She smells delicious, of course, but she doesn't smell like the rest. Not like shit or piss any longer." Pam licked her lips and shuddered visibly at the thought of how Sookie smelled. "You noticed that?"

I decided to ignore that question. _Of course,_ I was aware of how delicious Sookie smelled; That didn't mean that I wanted to hurt her, surprisingly. I just would rather not think of how unique and delicious her blood smelled. "Pam, has Sookie told you anything about herself while you've been with her? Or anything to Ginger at the very least while she took care of her during the daylight hours this morning, for that matter?"

"Told us anything?" Pam turned to look at me while puckering up her lips for her lipstick. "Like what?"

"I don't know, like why she decided to run away from her human home?" She told me while half-asleep that her human parents were dead, after mistakenly calling me her daddy. I didn't know whether she had an extended family to fall back on. Perhaps not? But surely someone out there would have cared that she had gone missing, wouldn't they? Something told me a little girl was difficult not to miss. "Or how long a time it has been since she has been living out on the street the way she has?"

"She's told me absolutely nothing about herself like that. Shit all, really. Well, aside from how she knows all the letters of the alphabet and that she can spell her full name. Her last name is Stackhouse- or so that's what she said. Funny last name, don't you think?"

 _Stackhouse._ So that was her name. _Sookie Stackhouse._

"I just feel its strange that a miniature human like her can go missing without anyone so much as bothering to look for her," I explained to Pam. "It just doesn't make any sense to me."

"Well, maybe she's got no one left?" Pam shrugged nonchalantly. "It happens. Maybe she's been waiting for somebody like us to actually give a fuck and let her live with them?"

"Well, either way, I think you and I both know that we can't keep her for very long, Pam." It was reality; We couldn't. We were in no uncertain terms capable of taking care of a little girl, no matter how much we deluded ourselves into believing it. "I think we have to step back a bit and not get too attached here. No doubt she _does still_ have family left, and they will eventually come searching for her so that they can claim her back."

Pam surprised me by looking outraged at the mere comment. Her lips parted in offense. "Why the fuck can we not keep her? It's not like she has anywhere else to go, is it? It isn't like someone has come to collect her, seeing as she was sleeping outside of Fangtasia for who knows how long? No one's coming to collect her. Obviously no one is left to give a shit for her, so what should it matter that we keep her for ourselves?"

"Well, well." I couldn't help grinning at her. This was so unlike Pamela, having developed affection for a child; Children, who she usually believed, were beneath her. "Haven't you changed in the last twenty-four hours, Pam? It would seem Sookie has gotten quickly underneath your skin, too, hasn't she?" I put my hand over my chest, mocking her. "How touching."

Pam shook her head at me in annoyance, before turning back to finish off her makeup for the evening.

" _Of course_ she hasn't," she said quickly, feigning disinterest. "I don't _even really care_ what happens to her. Kill her or keep her. Throw her back out on the street so she starts smelling like smelly rotting diapers and piss again, I don't truly give a shit either way. I'm just simply saying that maybe you were onto something when you mentioned last night about keeping her?"

"I know that I would very much like to keep her too, Pam," I admitted to her gently. "It could be... fun. But first of all, I think it would be wise if I talked to Sookie- _glamored_ her, even. Just to establish whether she still has any living ancestors left that might be searching for her. If not, then she's all ours."

When I went upstairs, I could hear Sookie singing an off-pitch tune in my office. Evidently her parents hadn't bothered informing her that she sounded terrible when she both hummed or sang. Her parents probably doted on her, with being too afraid to crush her fragile poor little heart. I knocked on the open door just for the sake of it so I wouldn't startle her, and when she straightened in the chair, looking up at who was there, she let out a disarming squeal.

She climbed off the chair and was running towards me, a beaming smile on her face. It was disturbingly... adorable of her. She looked fuller in the face than she did last night upon first coming across her. Chipmunk cheeked.

I stood back slightly to look down at her. Pam had obviously enjoyed dressing her up again like she was a dolly; She was wearing a little white dress with a blue and red floral pattern on it. Her blonde hair was combed and untangled with a white headband that matched the dress. She looked like another little girl, and not that one I found yesterday. When I went to bend down over her, I could only just imagine how painful it would have been had I still been a human. She was that short that it would have potentially dislocated the spinal disk or ruined my back for good.

"Hello Sookie," I said, trying to sound friendly. "I see Pam has been having fun playing dress ups with you, has she?"

"She got me this dress," she said, her voice squeaky in excitement. "Isn't it pretty? I feel like a real princess in a Disney movie."

"Uh, sure. Sure... it is so... pretty, yes." I cleared my throat awkwardly, trying to figure out how to do this in the most easiest and gentlest of ways. "Uh, Sookie, I need to ask you a few serious questions. Would you mind that?"

She blinked at me before looking down at her bare toes. "Okay."

"Excellent." She was still staring at her toes, which would not do. "I am going to need you to look me in the eyes for a moment, Sookie," I told her softly, and I heard her swallow audibly before she did. She seemed almost... shy as her brown eyes stared into mine. Those eyes alone had the power of making me feel strangely... sympathetic towards her, but I pushed that all aside, working on doing my best to glamour it out of her. "I want you to tell me why you ran away from home and who you are running from. You _will_ tell me this right now, and you won't cry while doing it."

I heard Pam come in from behind me, having decided to come join me and watch the show.

Pam made the noise of astonishment and confusion for me when Sookie glanced away from me to look at Pam in uncertainty. She didn't seem as though she had any discomfort or trouble whatsoever in tearing her gaze away from mine. What? Am I losing my touch? Does my glamour not work on children? As far as I have recalled from previous past escapades, I am certain it does work on children. So why wouldn't it work on a girl like her?

Then Sookie's eyes met mine again, and as I made another attempt, she shocked me by bursting out in a fit of high-pitched giggles, covering her small fingers over her mouth as her body shook from head to toe. "Hey, that tickles and feels funny," she said to me through her childish laughter. "It's like your tickling me, but inside my brain!"

 _Fuck me._ She was immune to glamour. Not once had I nor Pam met a human capable of withstanding the influential power of our glamour before. It was... astounding.

Realizing I'd have to use a different tactic, seeing as my glamour wasn't working on her, I cleared my throat again while trying to appear harmless and as though I was somebody she could trust. "Sookie," I started, gently. "Did you run away from home? You said that... that your parents died? Your mommy and daddy?" I couldn't think of any other way to put it more delicately to her than that. "So is that the reason you ran away? Because mommy and daddy died?"

Finally, it seemed we were getting somewhere. Sookie shook her head slowly.

"So that isn't simply why you ran away? Because mommy and daddy died and you had no one left?"

"No, I... I lived with Gran afterwards," she mumbled in a barely audible enough voice. "There was Gran and my older brother. His name is Jason, and he... he was kinda mean and always picking on me." She stopped speaking anything else after that; It was fairly annoying that she wouldn't just come out with it already and get it over with.

"So that's why you ran away?" I shook my head in confusion. I really wasn't understanding much at all, to be frank. "Because your Gran and your brother Jason were mean?"

"No." She shook her head fiercely. "They just... they wouldn't believe me. Granny, especially." Sookie lowered her head, her chin resting against her chest. It was as though she was refusing to look at anybody.

"She didn't believe you, Sookie?" I prompted. "Believe you about what? What did Granny not believe?" _Granny sounded like not a very nice bitch,_ I added mentally to myself. _Who wouldn't believe a little girl like you?_

"I... I don't want to talk about it," she said, flapping her arms around stubbornly. "It's bad, and I... I don't want to say it."

I sighed loudly. While it would have been great that she told us everything, I suppose I couldn't push her. It was fucking irritating that I couldn't just glamour it out of her, though. "Fair enough then," I said to her, ignoring the annoyance burning in my gut. She looked sad, like just thinking about whatever had happened had caused a great trauma on her. "You don't have to tell me if you don't want to, Sookie. But would you like to live with us?"

I asked it like I was giving her a choice. But little did she know, we were keeping her, regardless of whether she wanted us to or not. I caught excitement flash through her eyes as she looked from me, to Pam again. She started shaking and jumping back and forth on both feet, like she was so ecstatic and excited by the idea of living with us, that everything was settled then.

We were keeping her. _A new pet; A new addition to our dysfunctional family._

 ** _So what did you think? Was it too silly? Lol, I love reading your thoughts, so please do keep them coming. :) They make my day. You guys are so supportive and amazing, its so nice._**


	4. Chapter 4

_**I own nothing to do with TB or SVM. I just am a fan and am doing this for fun (obviously lol).**_

 _ **Hoping you enjoy this one. As usual, its probably quite silly haha. Thank you so much for your kindness and encouraging reviews! It means a lot to me!**_

* * *

 _ **Chapter Four**_

A week went by without so much as any notable catastrophes.

Sookie seemed to be blending in and adjusting to living with us in Fangtasia quite well; For a couple of days, she was quiet as a mouse and just liked to sit by herself and draw, occasionally talking to me or Pam.

Then, just like that, she started becoming louder and more of a chatterbox with each passing night. I suppose she finally worked out for herself that both Pamela and myself were trustworthy and that we weren't going to become any type of threat to her tinyhood.

Pam and I took it in turns with "babysitting" duty of a night. Pam would go out to the bar while Sookie sat with me in my office while I did paper work and sorted out payslips for the staff. Then next night, it would be Pam's turn while I went out and sat in the bar while the human patrons stared at me.

This evening, it was my turn to do my bit of babysitting duties again. Honestly, I felt uncomfortable and out of my depths the first time I had to do it. I hadn't talked to a child in a very long time, but I learned that I had to dumb-down my vocabulary quite a bit for Sookie. I also had to (as she termed it) "mind my P's and Q's" and the S-word and the F-word were to be avoided at all costs.

It also seemed that Sookie could smell out my inexperience. Because after a moment of sitting with her the first time, she had said, "You don't spend time with children very much, do you?"

When I had asked her if she needed to be changed hourly with her diapers, Sookie had even laughed at me and said with a pointed look, "That's baby stuff. I'm not a baby, silly; I'm ten! I don't got to wear diapers!"

So the first time of babysitting duties was very informative to me...

Now I knew that Sookie didn't require diaper changes and that also, I had to be careful with what I said around her. I suppose all of that should have been common fucking sense, but how was I meant to know that?

Now that the spontaneity of deciding to keep Sookie had waned, I was now starting to think things through more rationally.

I was also reassessing our accommodation issues; We had a two bedroom safe-house in Baton Rouge that we hadn't utilized in quite some time, seeing as we hadn't had to. It took almost four full hours to get there by car, less by flying, and Pam preferred sleeping in Fangtasia because she felt it were easier that way to just wake up and immediately get into the business of running the bar. But that was when it was just the mere two us; Now we had someone else to look after and consider.

Perhaps now was a better time than any to start making good use of the house, considering there was another addition to the family and she would do best in a home environment, rather than in a crowded and noisy bar. No doubt, Sookie would have felt better if she had a bedroom to call her own and, not to mention, an actual bed. Business had been running smoothly for years now, and I had earned enough money by now that I shouldn't be stingy.

I had also contacted two day laborers to revamp the room that was going to be Sookie's new bedroom. They still had a fair amount of work to do, as far as painting the walls a pink salmon color went. Pam suggested the paint color, and once it was finished, she wanted to be put in charge of refurnishing the room. Pam would know more about what girl's liked in their bedrooms anyway.

I also had abstained from feeding and fucking a human all week in what was world record time for me, because no doubt, exposing a child to that kind of imagery was hugely inappropriate. Seeing as she was around me most of the night, I would have to suffer in drinking dull synthetic blood. Once everything was prepared with the house in Baton Rouge, I assumed that would change and everything would return back to as it normally was; Or well, as normal as it could possibly get with a child put into the equation.

But most bizarre- and strangest of all- is that I have this automatic need to protect Sookie and ensure that she is all right. Too many times than I would have liked, I have had to stop straight in the middle of paper work or sitting out at the bar because I was fretting that something was wrong with the little girl.

Hell, during the week I have even found myself unable to stop picturing that same little girl I found outside Fangtasia near the bin, huddled under a cardboard box wet, dirty, and shivering. It would only spur me into stopping what I was doing in order to go check on her and make sure she was all right.

Me, fretting over the well being of a little girl? It was something I hadn't expected to experience.

I suppose that was why I had been prone to overfeeding her. She had fattened up a lot during the past week, and honestly, she looked better for it. At least she no longer complained about her stomach hurting.

Pam sent her in as my turn of babysitting duties, and Sookie automatically helped herself to a place on my couch while I sat at my desk, rifling through pay-sheets and counting hours of shifts. Half the time, it was difficult keeping her preoccupied and busy. She bored easily, I learned very quickly. Three hours of drawing was just not cutting it anymore.

"Did you have fun this morning with Ginger?" I asked her while she pulled her legs up on the couch.

I still didn't know what it was that her and Ginger did in the daylight hours to fill the time, to be honest. But I assumed, with someone like Ginger, that there wasn't much to do.

She started undoing the wrapper on the lollipop Pam had given her. We learned quickly also, that Sookie enjoyed eating lollies.

"It was okay," she said quietly. She made a disgusted face by scrunching up her nose and her forehead. "Kinda gross, though."

"Gross?"

"She makes me weird things to eat half the time. Like cucumber and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and pickles with chocolate sauce. It all tastes funny. And she keeps going on in her mind voice about you, how she thinks your the S-word and that she wishes to have your babies." Sookie had spoken about that mind voice thing all week. Pam and I still wasn't sure what she meant by that.

"Oh? So you don't like the food Ginger makes you?"

"I don't know," she said slowly. "It's okay. Just tastes funny. It's not like how my Granny used to make things."

During the week, Sookie hadn't mentioned hardly anything about her human relatives. Now that I discovered that my glamour hadn't worked on her, I didn't know how else to get it out from her.

"And how did Granny make things?"

"She used to make almond slice pie, my favorite." She smiled halfheartedly at the memory. "And she'd make nice dinners like mashed potato and fried chicken with special sauce. Stuff like that."

Pam and I had no experience with cooking, and neither did Ginger evidently. There wasn't much we could do about that. But I got the sense that she was already missing her human relatives, particularly this grandmother of hers with her up to par culinary skills.

"Do you miss your grandmother, Sookie?" I asked her while trying to make my tone gentle. "Do you wish to be back home with her now?"

I was almost dreading her answer as I stared at her patiently. Pam definitely enjoyed having her around. As for myself, I was slowly getting there.

"No," she said, with a little shudder. "I don't ever want to go back there." She lifted her gaze to mine, her eyes hard and her expression stubborn. "Never, ever again. Not when she said I was a bad girl and that I was fibbing, that liars go to hell. Not if she thinks that about me, when I was only telling her the truth..."

She had been saying cryptic statements like that all week. I wasn't completely certain what had happened to cause her to run away from her home, but whatever that reason was, I had assumed it was grave.

"Telling her the truth? Telling her the truth about what?"

Just as usual, she found a way of getting out of answering by shoving her lollipop in her mouth so she couldn't talk any longer, clicking it around her teeth. She started sucking in a loud, slurping way that was quickly becoming fucking irritating.

"What's a mind voice?" I asked her, the only thing I could think of off the top of my head to stop her from making all that grating noise. It seemed to work; She popped the lollipop out of her mouth, thank fuck. "Pam and I hear you mention that all the time, but frankly, we do not understand?"

"You know, _mind voice_..." She stared down at her lollipop, turning it over and over on the stick. "You and Mrs Pam don't got mind voices though, and neither does that man at the bar."

What? So us vampires didn't have mind voices?

"And is that why you didn't like going out into the bar with Pam yesterday? Or was it simply due to the music being too loud?" Pam had tried unsuccessfully to bring Sookie out into the bar so she could do door duties, only Sookie hadn't wanted that.

It was bizarre; She had almost seemed distressed and on the verge of crying when Pam had tried to yank her out by the hand with her. I could hear Sookie saying over and over something about it being too loud. It was as if Sookie wanted to avoid the bar area like the plague, though perhaps she just knew that a bar was anything but an appropriate place for a child to be, particularly seeing as alcohol would be served in that area? Not to mention, the dancers we had employed.

"It's not just the music that makes it really, really loud," she admitted after a moment. "It's the mind voices, too. The S-word and bad things that are said in their mind voices."

"So when you say mind voices, do you mean... thoughts?" I still wasn't comprehending what she was trying to say.

She stared at her lollipop thoughtfully for a moment before finally nodding, "Kinda."

"Do you mean to tell me that you can hear human's thoughts? That you are..." _What was it?_ "...A telepath? Is that it, Sookie?"

Her eyes darted upwards to me again and she nodded vigorously, her face lit up in recognition. "Yes! Yes, that's what its called! Granny said that once, only I couldn't remember what it was called!"

Her mind voices were the thoughts of the human patrons that she could hear. And Ginger's, also. Finally, it all seemed to make some sort of reasonable sense. Holy fuck. While I had sensed there had to be something different about Sookie- particularly considering her scent- I hadn't once suspected that was it; That she was a telepath, that she had that valuable gift. How beneficial would she be... How advantageous she would prove to be... I was having difficulty in keeping my fangs retracted, I was that excited by the news!

 _No need to get too excited now... It is better to hone it in._

"So you are a telepath, Sookie?" I had to work at keeping my voice one-level, to not let any of that excitement seep through. "When you said mind voice all those times, you were... referring to your ability to hear thoughts?"

"Yes!"

"And so is that why you ran away from home? Because Granny didn't... believe you about your valuable gift?" The closeness of at last finally fully learning how she came to be out on the street and her difficult home life was so sweet I could almost taste it.

But then it was like stabbing a pin into a balloon. Her face deflated, and her eyes flew back down to her lollipop in her hand again. "No, it... it wasn't about that. Granny did believe me about that."

I could see she still wasn't comfortable talking about that, so I switched it around slightly. "Whereabouts did you live with your grandmother?"

"In Bon Temps."

Bon Temps? I knew of Bon Temps well, as it was part of my area that other vampires were required to report to me. It was not in any way a special town; It was small, with only a few convenience stores. It was also quite the distance from here, in Shreveport. Too far a distance for a little girl to walk to.

"Bon Temps is quite far away from here in Shreveport. How did you come to be here? Even if you... walked, it would have taken you quite some time, wouldn't it?"

"I walked and then I caught a bus. Then I walked some more."

I suppose that explained it, if she caught a bus. But why did she decide to sleep here outside the back entrance and rubbish area of Fangtasia?

"So why did you choose to sleep outside here?"

"Because it was the quickest thing I saw. There was a cardboard box outside so I could sleep underneath that, too."

"For an entire week?" I was assuming she had been sleeping outside Fangtasia for over a week, seeing as Pam and I had been hearing something making crying noises for that long.

"I didn't got nowhere else to go. Besides the lights were on outside most of the night. It wasn't as... scary like other places where it was left dark."

We were definitely making headway. Neither Pam nor I had had this much progress all week in getting her to open up to us. Now I understood what she meant when she said mind voices, that she was a telepath. She was a telepath, and she was immune to a vampires glamour. That made Sookie a very special and unique little girl. But also, that she had gotten to Shreveport by bus, that she hadn't completely walked the entire way on her small feet. Pam would be envious that I had won at making Sookie open up, best of all.

"But weren't you frightened?" I asked her in confusion. "We had quite a lot of vampire patrons that come inside here. What if one of them so happened to notice you sleeping outside? Weren't you scared that they would thrive at the chance of attacking a small little girl?"

"I... I was at first. But then I decided it wouldn't be half as bad as what I left back at home with Gran."

"And so what happened at home with your Gran?" I was nearly leaning off the edge of my chair, closer to her, waiting for the precise moment I won and she enlightened me. "What was so bad that you felt you had to run away as a last resort?"

To my disappointment, Sookie still didn't take the bait. She shifted slightly on the couch so that she wasn't facing me head-on, and before I knew it, I heard her sniffling.

I knew what she was doing the instance she made that sound; She was crying. I had caused her to cry, yet how? When I leaned back in my chair at an angle to catch a glimpse of her face, surely enough, tears were streaming down her cheeks and her nose was red. How the fuck had I managed to do that?

I had made humans cry a lot over the years, especially when torturing them. At the time, it had only served to inflate my ego and make me feel good. Making humans cry had felt, to me, like the biggest endorphin rush.

Yet with Sookie, I found it was different. I didn't feel any semblance of glee over managing to make her cry. No, I just felt like an asshole. Pam was going to kill me when she found out about this, about making Sookie's eyes leak.

For the first time in a very long time, I felt extremely hopeless and useless. I just sat there, watching her, while she used her hand to wipe her tears away with her fingers hurriedly, her chin wobbling.

What was I meant to do? Go over and pat her on the head? Say 'There there, little girl'. Or did I say 'Stop crying, please. It's fucking annoying, even if you are a little girl that is supposed to cry.'

"Uh, please." The words croaked out desperately like a plea before I could so much as even stop myself. "Please don't... uh, do that, Sookie. I... I don't know how to deal with that, so don't, uh..."

She made another sniffling noise as she looked my way again.

"Pam?" I muttered urgently around the office. She'd know what to do about this predicament more than I ever would. "Ah, Pam. Sookie's... uh, crying? What... what do I do about this?"

When no answer came, it occurred to me that I was out on my own. No one else could help me. I certainly was not expecting looking after a human girl to make me feel so frighteningly... human.

With her eyes all watery and her nose red, it made me feel disturbingly... sad for her. And paternal; Like I wanted to rush right over to the couch and take her in my arms. Scary. Then I realized that was probably exactly what she needed; Her eyes were pleading for me to hug her or do... _something_.

When I reached the couch to where she was sitting, I knelt down, and that was when she started crying softly again. I backtracked, moving away from her quickly. Maybe I had misread the signals? She was crying again because she wanted me nowhere near her; she didn't need me to comfort her. Then she shook her head back and forth when she noticed I'd moved away, and then when I knelt back down over her, it took a lot of courage to bring myself to brush her hair back gently with my hand.

"What's wrong, Sookie? Did I... say something to make you upset?"

She made a grunting noise of frustration while wiping her eyes again. "Cheese and rice, and all things nice! You _really do_ know nothing about how to look after a kid, do you?"

I had to laugh, I couldn't help it. Not _at her_ , of course. But at how apt she was at gauging the situation. Her words were really an understatement. "That's very true," I admitted, not without some shame. "Usually I avoid little children at all costs, both me and Pam. Sorry." I astounded myself by how quickly I chose to apologize to her; I definitely never did that very often either. "I am... deeply sorry that I am so terrible at knowing how to look after a little girl such as yourself. But I'll get better," I added brightly under my breath.

 _Even if it was the last thing I ever did, I would get better. Yes, I most certainly would._

 **Hope this one was okay? Sorry if its extremely silly. Things will speed up and become more eventful next update. Suggestions on the story and what you would like to happen are most welcome, too. :)**


	5. Chapter 5

**Hey guys, I'm so sorry for taking so long to update. So far, I hope you guys have had a brilliant start to the New Year! Hope you enjoy :-)**

* * *

 **Chapter 5**

Fangtasia was closed tonight because Pam and I decided it was time to have auditions. Not for strippers or dancers, of course. No, we had enough of those. But, more like babysitter auditions for Sookie. Since we had the house ready for her in Baton Rouge, obviously she couldn't be expected to stay there alone while we went to ground during the daylight hours.

She would need someone; Someone experienced with cooking and looking after a little girl her age so she wouldn't get into trouble. Pam had put an advertisement up online detailing that we needed a babysitter to a ten-year-old girl for assistance during the day and, so far, we had gotten a lot of responses.

Pam had selected five of the candidates she considered worthy, and we were to have them come to Fangtasia tonight to interview them. Sookie would be there with us, of course. With her valuable gift of telepathy, she could give us Intel, not to mention it was important that she decide who she wanted as her babysitter herself. Sookie was to be the one hanging around with the babysitter all day, after all. It was only fair she chose one she liked.

Candidate Number One was strange, for lack of a better word.

The woman was middle-aged, with dark brown curly hair. She was also slightly chubby in the 'Vampires R Cool' T-shirt and denim shorts she was wearing. As they say, appearances are often misleading, so we just sat back, letting Sookie make her mind up on whether she wanted the woman as her babysitter or not. But when we started going through our list of questions, it became apparent to me that Sookie didn't like the woman. She was sitting beside me in a chair, her face scrunched up while she kicked her feet back and forth.

"I love vampires so much," the woman said, in her Southern twang. She eyed Pam a little too lustfully for my liking. "You-all are so sexy. I just love you-all, and just so you know, I'm a real believer in them Equal Rights amendment stuff you-all are striving for." She started stroking her inner thigh, which was... inappropriate if you asked me.

I leaned over towards Sookie, whispering in her ear, "You want her?"

She shook her head back and forth a few times vigorously. "Nope, I don't. She keeps going on and on about sandwiches."

"Sandwiches?" _Well, the human was a little heavy. Maybe she was hungry?_

"You and Mrs Pam in a sandwich," Sookie explained quietly, and it was then I realized. _Of course_ Sookie didn't understand, she was too young to understand that sexual connotation. How strange; We had put up an advertisement online seeking someone suitable to look after a human child. Instead, what we got was a horny, old Fangbanger desperate for a threesome.

I cleared my throat, addressing the woman, "Er, you do realize this is about babysitting, right? We need someone to look after Sookie."

The woman looked at Sookie, probably even noticing her sitting there for the first time. "Oh, damn," she muttered under her breath. "I don't much like children. I'm all for vampires though." She grinned at both me and Pam in a disturbing way, exposing crooked yellow teeth. "As you can see by my shirt, I find you-all so sexy."

 _Jesus Christ._ She was like a broken record that wouldn't stop.

I sighed loudly in irritation, lifting a hand to pinch the bridge of my nose with my forefinger and thumb.

"Well, you're not here for us," Pam spoke up, scrawling a line through the woman's name on the piece of paper attached to the clipboard she had resting in her lap. "You're here for Sookie. If you don't like children, you might as well leave now and stop wasting our fucking time already."

The woman's smile deflated before she got up and left, insulted.

I let out a deep sigh, resting my head back in the chair. I certainly was not anticipating finding a babysitter for a little girl being this difficult.

"That was a disaster," Pam remarked under her breath, stabbing her name on the list with her pen.

"Tell me about it," I agreed in irritation. "She was more concerned with sandwiches than what she was actually here for."

"What did she mean by sandwich?" Sookie asked, looking between us in confusion.

Pam went to explain what the woman had really meant by it, but I cut her off quickly, "Food, Sookie. She was hungry, that's all." There was no need for her to know such crude things at a young age.

Candidate Number Two and Three were just as terrible. They mainly just gushed about how they supported vampire equal rights- not anything about Sookie and what the job description entailed, of how they would be required to babysit and look after a ten-year-old girl. Sookie didn't much like them either, but Candidate Four seemed a little better. She even brought in her resume and actually talked to Sookie like she cared to get to know her.

She had long brown hair and there was a sense of otherness about her, though she was definitely human. She dressed appropriately, like a school teacher with a skirt and blouse. No vampire-loving slogans, no anything.

"Well, I'm Amelia Broadway," she began as she sat herself into the vacant seat across from us, folding her hands tightly in her lap while Pam read her resume. You could tell she was nervous by the way her voice went all high-pitched and shaken. "I'm twenty eight years old and, I've been struggling to find a job for awhile now. With that said, I have a small cousin, a boy. How old are you, Sookie?" She leaned forward in her chair with interest.

"I'm eleven next year," Sookie announced proudly, though quite shyly.

"Eleven next year? Wow! Well, my cousin, he's a bit... younger than you. But I love spending time with him, which is why I feel I would personally be suited for this job. I love children and I believe in creating a fun environment for them where they can be free to play and learn." At least she sounded passionate.

"Sookie needs someone to look after her for the day," I explained to her. "As you know, Pamela and myself are vampires. We can't look after her during that time."

"Oh, I understand." This Amelia Broadway nodded eagerly.

"So you have experience with children due to looking after your cousin. We also need someone who knows how to cook and understands about basic nutrition for a little girl?"

"I love cooking and I think I get the gist of what she'll need. Cooking's one of my favorite hobbies."

"And what about languages?"

"I know French?" She looked between us uncertainly. "And Swedish?

I sat up straighter, my interest heightened. "Oh, verkligen?" I raised my eyebrows at her.

"Ja. I could teach Sookie if that would be something you would want?" I nodded and she seemed to relax a little. "And I'm free for however long you want me. Also I'm a... I'm a little into witchcraft, I feel I should say that." She winced, staring between me and Pam nervously.

 _Ah, so she was a witch._

"I haven't quite mastered it all yet, so I'm fairly... new to it. But if you're looking for someone who can protect Sookie, I think I would do great. Recently, I've learned how to do a guarding spell?"

I heard Sookie gasp loudly. "Witches are real?"

She could definitely come in useful. "We have a house Baton Rouge, which is where Sookie will be during the days." I turned to look at Sookie, whose head was tilted slightly to the side as she observed the woman. I could tell she was listening into her thoughts to see if she was hiding anything. "You want her?" I whispered uncertainly, consulting her. It all came down to whether ultimately Sookie felt she was suitable enough for her.

Then she nodded slowly with a shy smile. "I do. I like her a lot," she whispered back with a shaky giggle. "She's nice and she means well."

We still had one other person to go, so we couldn't exactly be so hasty to tell her she had the job.

"We will contact you by tomorrow to let you know whether you have the job or not," I told Amelia. "Thank you for your time."

"No, thank _you_." She stood, smiling down at Sookie. "And it was lovely to meet you, Sookie. I sure do hope we can get to spend some time together. I know I would just love to be your babysitter."

Our last and final Candidate was the only male applicant we had. He was an older human, frail looking.

Apparently he had served in the Civil War and he wasn't quite ready to retire yet. He also stressed that he believed children should be disciplined and that kids nowadays lacked old-fashioned manners and values. We didn't really think he was in anyway suitable and, honestly, I think we had all agreed that the Amelia Broadway woman was best.

Sookie's reaction to the man was strange. She was hanging almost off her seat, scooted over towards my chair, like she was frightened of the man. She also looked rather ill and pale, and her small hands were clutching her stomach as she stared at him while he talked, her face pinched. I didn't understand her reaction at all.

"I don't like him," she whispered in my ear. " _Not_ him. I don't want _a man_ as my babysitter." She didn't want a man? Technically, _I_ was a man and Sookie didn't seem to have any trouble with me. "Please, please, not him! I want Miss Amelia!"

"You really don't like him? His thoughts are bad?"

"No, he just reminds me of..." She trailed off, sniffling loudly. I had no idea who the frail old human reminded her of, but clearly she didn't like him. That made three of us then.

After we informed him that he wouldn't be getting the job, he went off an a tirade about how unnatural we were and that God's way was not to have vampires in it, that we disrupt the natural course of human evolution or some shit like that.

Pam ended up having to haul him out by force. We were relieved when he was gone.

I also realized that I would have to be doing some investigating. I'd have to find out whereabouts it was in Bon Temps that Sookie lived and see whether or not her Grandmother was looking for her. That was a likelihood we had to face.

"Whereabouts in Bon Temps did you live, Sookie?" I asked her once she seemed to settle down after the man had left.

"In Hummingbird Road, next to the cemetery." I left her with Pam to take care of, telling neither of them where I was going. It took barely ten minutes of flying to reach the cemetery and, fortunately, there was only one house across from it. It looked generations old; a white weatherboard with peeling paint and old porch swing. The light was also on inside the kitchen, so I figured there had to be a human in there somewhere.

As I got closer, I heard it. A woman that sounded rather old was talking on the telephone to someone. She sounded like she was stressed and was crying.

"I don't give a rat's ass how many times you tell me you are doing every damn thing you can," she spoke loudly. "I want more to be done! It's been two dreadfully long weeks and Lord only knows whats happened to her!" She said something else, and then I heard Sookie's name come into the equation.

Oh, she was Sookie's Grandmother all right. And, apparently, she was searching for her. She was talking to a sheriff. She wasn't satisfied with how they were doing things.

"She could have gotten killed by now or anything dreadful like that! She's a ten year old girl, yet you dare to tell me that there is nothing else to be done but to sit and wait and see if she'll return? Well, I'm afraid I will not do that. I will not sit idle waiting for a child."

She wanted Sookie back. And, no doubt, Pam and I were going to have to give her to her.

* * *

When I flew into the back entrance of Fangtasia, I got inside, hearing Pam and Sookie in my office.

Pam was brushing out Sookie's long blonde hair while Sookie hummed happily as she cut pieces of paper out with a pair of scissors. It would be a shame to let her go, really. Pam and I had both began to enjoy having the smaller human here. Pam was bound to be upset; Though she didn't have a motherly bone in her body, I didn't think, I could see Pam was truly fond of her. Usually she hated smelly children, yet with Sookie, it was different.

But surely Pam had to have known we couldn't keep her, like she was some stray cat.

"Get over here, Pam. I need to talk with you for a minute. Keep your voice low."

She was not happy by the interruption while she brushed Sookie's hair, like she was her personal little doll or plaything. She sighed loudly, giving me a look before setting her brush down on the desk and moving over. I was not going to enjoy this conversation, to say the very least.

"I went investigating in Sookie's hometown. I found her house where she used to live with her elderly Grandmother."

"You did? So what?"

"So..." I sighed wearily, glancing over at Sookie. I didn't want to risk her overhearing. " _So_ , Pam. Her Grandmother wants her back. I heard her on the phone to a local sheriff. They've been looking for Sookie for over two weeks now."

"Wants her back?" Pam placed both hands on her hips, glancing Sookie's way herself. I could tell she didn't want to give her back either. "But I just called that stupid witch woman about her being Sookie's babysitter, and now, you want to give her back?"

"We kind of have to. We can't keep her, not when she already has a human family. Her Grandmother is looking for her, and obviously, she's concerned about her."

There was a loud noise from where Sookie was and as we both threw a look her way, we saw that she was now standing, staring at us, moisture building in her eyes. _Oh, great_. Apparently we hadn't been talking low enough.

"You wanna send me back?" she burst out, tearful and furious. "But you promised I could stay with you! I don't wanna go back and I _never_ am! Not when she said I was a rotten liar and that I made it all up! I can't go back there!"

"Well, unfortunately, we don't have much choice on the matter, Sookie," I began, trying to placate her. "Your Grandmother has the local law enforcement out looking for you. If that led them here, then don't you think that would put Pam and I into an extremely difficult situation?"

"I don't care," she said, weeping. Her thin shoulders were shaking, her bottom lip trembling. "You make me go back and I _will hate_ you! _Both_ of you!" With one last furious and hateful look at us- her mouth mashed in and her eyes fierce- she ran straight past us, sobbing loudly. _What a way to break someone's fucking heart._

"Well, children are definitely a lot more sensitive than I counted on," I muttered under my breath in shock. I had expected Pam to agree or to laugh at how children overreact, only she didn't. I could tell she was shitty with me.

"Good job. Now she's ran off and I haven't even finished her hair yet."


	6. Chapter 6

**I own nothing to do with TB or SVM, just a fan of the characters. :)**

 **Thank you so much! Hope this one is okay!**

* * *

 **Chapter Six**

After Sookie had ran off, throwing her little temper tantrum, Pam felt too lazy to search for her so I chose to do it myself. It would probably be best that I do it anyway, considering I was the one whose words had upset her.

I just couldn't see any other way out of it; We had to give Sookie back to her Grandmother. Either we did it as soon as possible, or we are to face the consequences of having to deal with the local human law authorities. We didn't need child protection services coming to the bar, thinking we were holding Sookie here under duress.

 _Unless_ I returned back to Sookie's Grandmother and glamoured her to start thinking that Sookie was safe with a friend and commanded her to call off the search party the police had for her- which wasn't such a bad idea- then we had no other alternative.

Annoyingly enough, I couldn't find Sookie anywhere in the bar.

I couldn't even catch a whiff of her scent, which should have been easy, as children smelled stronger and more pungent than older humans. She wasn't hiding anywhere in the crowd. Even when I asked Long Shadow, the bartender, whether he had seen a small child run past, he told me he hadn't.

Heading back outside, I couldn't catch her scent at all. There was a long line of humans wanting to come inside, so I figured if anyone had seen which direction Sookie had run off into, it would have been them.

"Has anyone here seen a little girl?" I asked loudly, relieved when it made all of them stop chattering at once to give me their attention. " _Anyone_ at all?"

I extended my fangs, hoping to scare them into it. Only it didn't work. Everyone remained quiet, exchanging puzzled glances with each other. No one came forward to give me any information. It really pissed me off.

"There was a crying little girl with blonde hair. Did anyone see her run past here?"

Grumbling under my breath, I realized I would have to search for her all by myself. Seeing as I couldn't get her scent in the bar to trace it to her whereabouts, I assumed it meant she had ran outside and was around here somewhere. It was just a matter of figuring out where.

Where did children go when they wanted to vanish because they were upset? It had been an extremely long time since I was last a child, so I didn't have the faintest idea. Trying to think like a child was no good, either. I no longer remembered what being a child was like, because time has made the memories unclear.

Then I had a light-bulb moment. There was a park, about two blocks away. Could it be there that Sookie had ran off to?

 _Well, it was worth a try anyway..._

I vamp-sped towards the park, because I didn't want to waste precious time dawdling. I had to find her. It was disturbing how worried I felt, how... anxious at the idea of not finding her. Relief spread throughout me when I saw her.

 _And, bingo.._.

I mightn't remember much of being a child, but at least I was right. She _was_ at the park, sitting on the swing, using her feet to sway back and forth a little, her head down low, shoulders hunched forward. I could hear the muffled crying noises she was making all the way from where I stood.

"Fee-Fi-Fo-Fum, I smell the tasty blood of a little girl," I said in a playfully menacing tone once I crossed through the gate, striding towards her.

I tried to make it seem like a game, only it didn't work. It never made her smile or laugh. She only just tensed up at the shoulders, lifting her head to look at me before she stared back down at her hands in her lap.

"Aren't you scared to be alone in the dark like this?" I asked once I sat on the empty swing beside her.

She shook her head several times, but she wouldn't look at me. She just lifted her small hands, wiping her tears away hastily while making more tragic sniffling noises.

An awkward silence fell on us for a moment. I clasped my hands together near my lap, peering down at them. I didn't know what to say. What the fuck _was_ I supposed to say? I felt guilty, because I had been the one to make her cry. I was truly inept at this, and I despised how hopeless and dense it made me feel. I had a sister when I was still a human, but she was an infant; She hadn't been Sookie's age. Sookie was way past the infant stage; she was a toddler.

How do you talk to a child to make them feel better, to console them? Or do you just tell them to 'Harden up, du lilla brat,' and laugh at them for overreacting?

"It's just not fair," she whined in a small voice after a long moment. I was thankful she broke the silence and spoke first, because as far as I was concerned, I was lost.

"Well, that's life unfortunately, Sookie. Life usually _is_ unfair." At least I could give her a bit of worldly wisdom and advice. "Life can be shitty and unfair. It's just... buckets of shit." I wasn't sure whether I was actually helping, but I saw her circle her arms over her waist, shivering, as the wind blew her hair around.

"I don't wanna go back to Granny. _Why_ can't I stay with you and Mrs Pam? Or do you not want me living with you anymore?"

"Of course, we want you to live with us." I smiled at her. "But it's as I said; I went to your house that you lived in, in Bon Temps. Your Grandmother is looking for you and she's very worried."

"I _don't care_ if she's worried." She lifted her head, holding her chin high in the air stubbornly. "She called me a liar and _I'm not_ a liar. I _never am_ a liar!"

I wish she would really just tell me what she meant by that already. It was frustrating that I couldn't glamour it out of her, because it would make it so much easier. She was hiding something and, obviously, she didn't want neither Pam nor I to know just what it was exactly.

"Your telepathy," I surmised, "That you can read minds? Your Granny calls you a liar frequently due to that?"

"No, not that." She shook her head. "It's... something else."

"What else?" I asked, prompting her. She obviously needed a little pushing. "What else did she accuse you of lying about, Sookie?"

Sookie just pressed her lips together, shaking her head back and forth. Then she hid her face from me, tucking it beneath her arm while her small shoulders shook. Whatever it was, it was definitely bad and she was afraid to even speak of it out loud.

"You like me and Pam, don't you?" I asked gently, trying a new tactic.

She didn't lift her face out from her arm, but I saw her head bob slightly.

"And you actually want to stay with us? You want to live with us?"

"Yes, I do," she said, her voice barely above a whisper. "Even though you two are vampires, you're way, way, _way_ more nicer than Granny has ever been to me!" That was definitely a bold declaration to make. Not very often did humans refer to Pam or myself as nice.

"So in by saying that you want to stay with us, it should mean that you trust us. You should trust me enough to tell me. So _tell_ me this: Does Granny hurt you?" I asked, shaking my head, at a loss. "Is she always mean to you? Does she... hit you?"

Finally, Sookie brought her face out from beneath her arm to stare at me. I felt as though someone had staked me in the chest when I saw how hurt she looked, how pained.

"She did when I told her what happened." She sniffled loudly, her eyes welling up with more tears. "She called me a liar and then she yelled at me to go upstairs into my bedroom. Then she came in, smacked me and said I shouldn't tattletale about things like that, and then she locked the door on me all night!"

"Tattletale about what?"

"About her brother," she whispered grumpily. "About what her brother did and I wasn't lying about it yet she said I did!"

It took me a moment to get over the shock. She hadn't revealed so much to me before. Without even being consciously aware of it, I had shifted in the swing closer to her. "So what did her brother do?"

Tears started streaming down her face again as she cried and she wrapped her bony arms around herself, hugging her own body. "He... he touched me," she finally said; It coming out of her mouth like an eruption of anger and shame. "Gran said she had to leave that morning to take my brother Jason to football practice, and that I would wait at home with her brother. He's my... my great uncle and he would come around every Sunday for the day."

I could see that it was something difficult for her to speak about, so I kept silent with all my might, waiting for her to speak again patiently.

"So Granny and my brother left, and I was alone with him. He said he wanted me to read for him and patted his lap, so I sat up on his lap to read. Then he put his hand under my shirt." It all came out in a big gush of air. "I never liked him, which Granny thought was mean of me because he's lonely and his wife died of breast cancer three years ago. But it's always his mind voice that I don't like. He always thinks about young girls and when he was touching me, I... I heard his mind voice, the way he was thinking about smooth, hairless skin and how nice it was."

I felt an overwhelming array of emotions hit me at her words. I felt rage. Confusion. Sadness for her. Above all that, though; an extremely satisfying urge to go kill this fucker. No, not kill him in a sudden way, because that would be too easy and painless, less than what he would deserve. But drawing it out for an extremely long time, torturing him bit by bit. Crushing him.

"And so your Granny called you a liar because you told the truth? That he had touched you, Sookie?"

"I wasn't lying, though! It _was_ the truth!"

"I'm not saying I think you are lying, Sookie," I assured her softly. "I believe you." I reached over with my hand, hesitating before touching her back. She was shivering. "And you don't have to see your Granny or your great-uncle ever again, if you don't want to?"

Her head snapped up as she met my eyes, a hopeful glint in them. "Really?"

"Really. You can stay with us, but... no doubt, you are already aware of how... unknowledgeable we are about this?" I chuckled nervously. "Pam and I haven't had much to do with children. But if you _are_ happy to stay with us despite that, then you can?" I didn't want to pressure her, of course.

And there was a lot of shit I would have to do, such as glamouring her Grandmother to forget about her, to believe Sookie was safe and well-protected. Which, safe and protected, she was; Pam and I would protect her. I would protect her with my very own life. What's more than that, I would make sure that fuckers like her uncle would never touch her again.

Startling me, she grinned at me widely, showing me the gap in her teeth, then she stood off the swing, moving towards me. Next thing I knew, her arms were wrapped around my neck and I had the side of her cheek resting against mine as she bent down to hug me. I couldn't even recall the last time I had been hugged; Especially not by a warm-blooded, fully alive, little human girl.

Actually I didn't think a child had hugged me before, not even after a full millennium. She was certainly brave; I had to give her that.

I blinked, stunned, before lifting a hand to pat around her back awkwardly. She made a strange mewling sound as her bony arms twined even tighter around my neck, her warm soft cheek rubbing against me, strands of her hair blowing into my face from the breeze.

I realized something then, something particularly disturbing.

I luxuriated in it secretly, in the way it felt to be hugged by a little girl. Being hugged felt fucking fantastic.

"Don't worry," I heard myself murmur to her as I closed my eyes, focusing on not breathing in case I got too carried away with the fragrance of her scent. "You won't have to worry about your great-uncle touching you ever again, Sookie." And tonight... _tonight_ would be his very last. I would make sure of that.

* * *

I left Pam to look after Sookie while I went out again, determined to make it so Sookie could remain with us for as long as she wanted.

I flew back to her Grandmother's house, ready to put my plans into motion. I just had to get Granny alone outside. Fortunately for me, as I stood behind a tree after making an easy landing, I saw the Grandmother sitting on the old porch swing. She was alone, and she wasn't speaking to anyone on the phone this time. She seemed preoccupied with staring up at the night stars in the sky.

I studied her, the way her grey hair was pulled back severely, seeing all wrinkles and frail bones. I never much liked older humans. In fact, it repulsed me, how humans looked when they aged, with sagging skin. At least I didn't have to go through _that_ disgusting shit.

She very nearly screamed at the top of her lungs when I vamp-sped. One second I was behind the tree, in the next, I was just as suddenly standing directly in front of her. She stiffened on the porch swing, gasping, her hands fluttering around in fear, one flying towards the broom next to her resting against the wall.

"Who on earth are you?" she croaked out, gripping the broom handle so tight that her knuckles went white. "If you don't get off my porch right this instance, I'll call the police!"

"Hello, Granny Stackhouse."

She lifted the broom, shaking it at me like she assumed a broom could keep her safe from me. How naive.

"Look me straight in the eyes," I demanded and once she did, it was easier then. All the fear swept out of her body as she stared fixated on me, going into a trance-like state. It was precisely where I needed her. "You won't worry about Sookie anymore. You will call the police as soon as I leave, and you will inform them that you have had contact from her. She is no longer missing and she's safe. She's with a distant relative, and they are taking good care of her."

Her mouth opened and closed. "Distant relative," she repeated slowly, "They're take... taking good care of her..."

"Yes, they are. Now, tell me where your brother lives. Sookie's great-uncle. Will you tell me?"

"Yes... He lives at..."

Once I had all the information I needed from her, I left, stepping behind the tree again. Just like that, she snapped out of it, glancing around, confused by her surroundings, it seemed. Then she went inside in a zombie-like state to call the local law authorities. I waited, listening to the call to make sure they bought it, the police. It seemed as if they had, so everything had been accomplished.

There was just one thing I had to do left, and it was bound to take almost all of the night.

 _Making Sookie's great-uncle wish he had never laid a hand on her..._

 **Hope you found some enjoyment in this one? Sorry if its extremely silly. I guess I like writing rather silly stories :P There will be a time jump fairly soon!**


	7. Chapter 7

**Thank you guys so much for being so kind! Hoping you enjoy this one LOL**

* * *

 **Chapter 7**

Great Uncle Bartlett would never be touching Sookie ever again. I definitely had made sure of that.

I paused from my work of hollowing out a makeshift grave in his backyard, dirt sticking to my fingertips after I had used them as claws to scoop the dirt out. My only companion was Uncle Barty as he made a few despairing groaning noises from where I had laid him out for easy dumping once the hole was large enough, his head resting lopsided against a tree.

It was three AM in the morning and no one was out anyway, aside from a few crickets and frogs from a mile away. Mainly it was just me and dear old Uncle Barty, having a splendid time while he bled out, his dick meters away from him from where I had ripped it off in the heat of the moment. _Ah, fun times. Pam would have loved to have been a part of this._

"Not long now," I told him, rather gleefully. "I just need to get a bit more dirt out and then I'd say we're ready to go."

He made a hoarse, pained noise at the back of his throat in response.

"How does it feel to no longer have a dick attached to you?" I went on, taunting him as I started flinging out dirt again over my shoulder. "Must hurt pretty badly, huh? Well, I thought it was the very least I could do, isn't it?"

I turned to look at Uncle Bartlett again, fighting the urge to laugh when he made a pathetic gurgling noise.

"At least this way, if you _do_ so happen to worm your way out of here, you won't be able to touch little girl's like Sookie ever again then, will you?" I stood back to inspect my work; It was definitely deep enough now. _Excellent_. "You know what it means for you now, don't you?" I made a show of smacking my hands together and rubbing them. "It's body dumping time."

His eyes widened and I saw the fear in them. _Oh, yes. Uncle Barty understood all right._

Stepping out of the hole in the soil, I grabbed him by the arm, ignoring his high-pitched pleads for mercy. I got him near the edge, kicked him in with the tip of my boot, and he fell in easily, face-first. The muffled, suffocated scream he made was like music to my ears.

"I was actually considering keeping this as a little souvenir," I said, picking his dick up off the ground with disgust. "But then I decided it wouldn't even make a good souvenir so you can keep it." I flung it in after him, hearing it splatter like mushy meat as it collided against the back of his shirt. "Enjoy."

I felt the strangest sense of deep inner clarity and calm once he was fully covered up with soil. There was something instantaneously gratifying about having been able to unleash your vengeance, particularly doing it for the greater good of little girl's like Sookie everywhere in the world.

I was predicting no one would find him for quite some time, and even if they did, he would be a mere rotting, decaying corpse by then.

I wasn't concerned either way, if the human local law authorities did actually end up finding him in soil; I knew it could never possibly lead them back to me, to our whereabouts.

And, far as I was concerned, it meant that there was one less pervert for children to have to worry about in the world. Not that Sookie would ever come to know of it; I was determined to keep it a secret from her, no matter what.

She could never know of what I did this night.

When I returned back to Fangtasia, the bar had closed for the night and it was virtually deserted. Pam was waiting for me when I got in, as per usual, ever the doting, patient daughter. Her lips compressed together and her eyebrows rose once she saw me. I knew why; I was covered in dirt and blood.

"What the fuck happened to you?"

"Nothing, Pam," I said with a shrug. "Relax. The blood isn't mine. I just had a few... loose ends to tie up." I could tell she wasn't going to let it drop, not even when I went into the staff bathroom to rinse the blood off my face. She followed straight behind me. "I killed Sookie's great uncle."

"You did? Why?"

"Because when I found Sookie tonight after she had ran away from us due to what I said to her, she finally told me what happened, Pam. I know why she doesn't want to return to her Grandmother's now." Pam was silent while I wiped my face on a hand towel. "Sookie's great uncle has been molesting her. The reason Sookie doesn't want to go back to live with her Granny is because she never believed her when she told her what he did to her. Granny called her a liar for telling the truth that he had molested her."

Pam folded her arms over her chest once what I told her finally sunk in. "Her great Uncle's been molesting her?" she repeated in shock, her mouth pinching in distaste. "Well, I hope you gave him hell tonight?"

"Oh. Don't I always?" A satisfied smile softened her features. "I ripped off his dick and everything, Pam. Let's just say he didn't enjoy that very much."

"But _you_ did?"

"One hundred percent." I nodded, eyeing her seriously. "It felt abso- _fucking_ -lutely great."

"Wish you thought of inviting me along then." She jerked her shoulders, sighing loudly. "I have a feeling I would have enjoyed getting into some dick-ripping action myself."

"Oh, I know you definitely would have." I noticed then that Sookie wasn't anywhere in the bar. Then again, it was late and way past a little girl's bedtime. "Where is she?"

"Sleeping downstairs in your coffin. I offered for her to sleep in mine, but she insisted." I could hear it in Pam's tone that she was feeling insecure. Sense it in her emotions through the maker-progeny bond also, which was... rare for her. Insecurity was not something she felt all that often, if ever. "Think she likes you more than me. Fuck knows why," she added, offhandedly.

"Oh, I'm sure she likes us equally, Pam," I said, trying to soothe her.

"Well, _you're_ always the one she wants to snuggle with in the coffin during the nights." I didn't understand that myself, but for some reason, it was true. Sookie did seem to prefer to sleep with me in my coffin over Pam's. But it would change in time.

"It won't be for long, Pam. The house is ready in Baton Rouge. We'll have to relocate there eventually. Maybe even by the end of this week."

I could sense that the sun was beginning to rise very shortly, which meant we had best start thinking of going to ground. Pam helped wipe the splotches of blood and dirt that I had missed off my face, and then we went downstairs- quietly for once, as not to rouse Sookie from her sleeping.

We loitered near my coffin in the basement, looking down at Sookie. It still took quite a lot for it to settle in, that we had a miniature human with us now and that we were going to have her for quite some time. Well, to me it took a lot to sink in, anyway. No doubt Pam had properly adjusted already.

Sookie was sleeping with one hand tucked under her chin, her hair splayed out around her. She seemed... peaceful without a worry in the world. A strange feeling blew through me at the sight of her, though I couldn't say what it was. Tenderness, maybe? Deep... affection for the little girl?

"Who the fuck would have ever thought it?" Pam muttered quietly in bewilderment, staring down at Sookie herself. "You and me, taking in a human girl as our pet?"

"I know, Pam. The novelty isn't lost on me either."

I had those doubts again; The ones I frequently have had of late, though I made an effort to usually keep them to myself. But I knew there was no harm in my progeny knowing.

"What the fuck are we doing here, Pam? She's not gonna stay little and easy forever." I sighed loudly. "You really think we will be able to do this? Someday, soon... in the not-too-distant future, she'll be older and she won't be like she is now. She'll be a...a bratty teen."

"Well, just think," Pam began airily, pushing her hair back from her shoulders, "My previous experience at running a brothel makes me skilled at this. I'll be her go-to mother in all those difficult and trying times where she contracts chlamydia or genital warts from her boyfriends."

"Boyfriends?" I repeated, unnerved at the idea. "Oh, no, Pam. Sookie won't be dating until she's _at least_ thirty-five." Pam threw her head back and laughed wickedly like we were sharing a good joke between ourselves, only it wasn't hilarious to me in the slightest. No, I was being completely serious on the matter. "No, perhaps _not even_ then. She was born into this world a virgin and that is how she will die. A _virgin_."

Even as I managed to climb into the coffin carefully without disrupting Sookie, I still felt such inexplicable primordial rage at the idea of having to endure seeing her dating irresponsible, reckless humans in the future.

Honestly, I had been so scared shitless about _now_ , about having to manage looking after a little girl and doing it right, that I hadn't been able to even consider or think that far ahead into the future of what it might be like once Sookie was a grown-ass woman.

But considering my strong, abhorrent reaction to Pam simply mentioning Sookie dating in the future as a fully flourished woman, I discovered something about myself then; something that no doubt I would always be for as long as we had Sookie.

Papa Northman was going to turn into Papa Wolf. Anyone interested in dating Sookie in the future would have to get through me first, and with me being a thousand years old, that was bound to be extremely unlikely.

 **So... time jump begins next chapter :-) Sookie will be twelve and it will go up from there, which means Eric is going to be in for a shock once he experiences a young girl's hormones and talking about the birds and the bees and periods, and all that other traumatic stuff**. **Hope you don't think its too ridiculous!**


	8. Chapter 8

_**Thank you so much for your kind words, it means a lot!**_

 _ **Hope you enjoy this one haha. Here is the time jump! :) Sorry if its silly as usual.**_

* * *

 _ **Chapter 8**_

 _ **(Two Years Later...)**_

When I got into the house in Baton Rouge, it was strangely quiet this evening.

Usually, since Sookie somehow knew either me or Pam was going to be coming over to check in, she would be running around, wide-awake and almost hyper to see us. Tonight, sadly... she was nowhere to be found. It crushed me a little to not hear the pitter-patter of her bare feet running towards me once I got inside the house through the front door.

The same couldn't be said for the witch, Sookie's babysitter. When I got into the kitchen, she was there, with what looked like a bag of books dumped on the table as well as pink, girly packages of foreign things I didn't much understand or had seen before.

Amelia had been fantastic for Sookie, not that I would ever tell that to her out loud. They got along very well and seemed equally fond of each other. What's more, it made Sookie relax about being in the house during the day while Pamela and myself had gone to ground.

They did everything together; Amelia was teaching Sookie basic math and Swedish. They even cooked together which was helpful, because Pam and I couldn't cook for shit. It was best that Sookie learned how to cook healthy human food for herself, which Amelia was helping her with.

"Great, you're home," she said cheerily, moving towards the bag eagerly. "There's something I figured I had to do for you. Oh, and don't worry, man." I must have looked concerned for Sookie, because she said reassuringly, "She's already eaten her dinner. As you can see from the food pyramid over there on the fridge, she's had a big meal of leafy green and yellow vegetables tonight..."

Amelia had given us a diagram of a food pyramid on what is important for a growing child's nutrition. I didn't really understand any of it, and frankly, it was confusing. Didn't kids just eat dirt and be merry anymore?

"She really seemed to like the broccoli and the carrots." She might as well have been talking in tongues for all the minimal sense it made to me. She must have read the sheer confusion on my face, because she shook her head and sighed loudly. "Any-who, she's now just upstairs brushing her teeth. I think she's waiting for you to go up to her room and read to her until she falls asleep."

It had began to develop as a habitual thing for us for the past year; Either Pamela or I would read to Sookie before she fell asleep, which she seemed to enjoy immensely. Recently, we had started reading Harry Potter, for the _fourth_ time. Sookie didn't even seem to give a shit that we'd already read it so many times; While I found it dull and repetitive, reading it over and over, she just kept insisting I read it to her regardless.

"I've got some stuff for you. Just some, ah, light-reading," Amelia went on, pulling five rather thick books out of the bag. "Just something to gloss over until the time comes..."

"For Sookie to read?" I asked in confusion. "Thank fuck. We've been reading Harry Potter over and over for the past year. As you can imagine, it does tend to get tedious."

"Nope, sorry." She frowned at me apologetically. "Unfortunately these _aren't_ for Sookie. They're strictly for you and Pam. Thought you'd appreciate them."

 _Oh, great. Fucking wonderful. More reading about four-eyed wizards._

Only to my relief, it wasn't Harry Potter again. No, I caught sight of one of the titles when she held it up to me. _'Being A Great Dad for Dummies'._ And, ' _Parenting for Dummies'. I_ was definitely the dummy in this situation.

"Oh. And _this_ ," she prattled on, picking up the round package with the pink plastic wrapping. "I don't know if you've noticed or if she's been saying anything to you about it, but Sookie's been complaining a lot about stomach pains lately. Or, well, _cramps_ but _she_ doesn't know its that."

 _Stomach pains? Cramps? It was news to me._

"Sookie hasn't mentioned stomach pains to me?" I muttered, bewildered. "Is she... sick? Should we think of calling in a doctor?"

It was in times like these that I felt truly dense. I loathed feeling hopeless and like I could hardly do anything right which, if I'm going to be honest, was all the time of late. Ever since we took Sookie in, adapting to it was something I found I could not do very easily. With Pam, however, she seemed to be settling in with it fantastically.

There was just a lot of... endless confusion there. And fear, also, I may as well admit. I had been alive for an extremely long time; I had gone through many things, and I had conquered them all. Yet nothing was more terrifying than being responsible of taking care of a little human girl and ensuring you did it right.

With most things in life, if it became too hard, you could just say _fuck it, its too much_ , and stop and get lazy with it all. Only you couldn't do that with a child. No, a child was permanent and if you fucked up, they bore the consequences of it once they got older.

"I don't think the people she used to live with have actually even told her what's gonna be happening to her," Amelia went on in a strong voice of outrage. "I don't think Sookie really understands the changes that she's going to have to go through with puberty and her body which is... tragic. You'd think the people she previously had lived with would have told her _something_ , wouldn't you?"

All I could seem to hear out of what she was telling me were two words that were being chanted repetitively inside my head, knocking around my skull, taunting me.

 _Bodily changes. Puberty._

 _Puberty. Changes._

 _Puberty._

I felt a surge of panic trickle through me. Somehow, stupid and ill-equipped as I was at this, I knew this would eventually come, this conversation.

I had been expecting it for quite some time now, and had been also dreading it just as equally. But also, usually, I preferred to not think about it and refuse to acknowledge it happening. Ignorance and denial was easier than having to face the reality that little girl's change, and the notion of Sookie changing was not something I was prepared for.

"I fail to see how that little pink package you're holding has anything to do with it?" I said, trying to conceal my nerves. "Sookie _just_ turned twelve. She's still a little girl?" Fuck me. I sounded so defensive.

"Yeah, and she may very well be an early bloomer. Speaking from, er, experience as a woman myself, it's not uncommon for girl's to get their first visit from their Aunty Flow at age twelve."

 _Aunty Flow?_ My head felt like it had started spinning. The world had seemed to shift and tilt diagonally.

"And by the sounds of it, with her complaining so much about the stomach cramps she's experiencing lately, I'd say its definitely coming 'round the corner. Maybe a week from now. Maybe even two." Amelia shrugged carelessly. "Guess we won't know for sure until the Red Sea makes its full arrival."

 _The Red Sea?_ Jesus. Her euphemisms were not helping at all.

"Which brings me back to _this_..." She held the package towards me. "Think of this as a little safety blanket or a... a care package. I got this, just in case. I mean, if it's gonna happen, you want to be fully prepared, right? I know it'll make things easier on Sookie if you have some at hand. Not to mention, it'll make things a little less, er... awkward for you."

She stared at me, sincere concern on her face. I didn't understand her concern at all.

"These are pads or sanitary napkins, whatever you want to call these little suckers. I recommend you start her off with pads rather than tampons, because... you know, its a scary time for a girl enough as it is and she doesn't need that extra pressure and the weirdness of trying to find where the tampon goes until she's ready, you know?"

It took a belated moment for it to fully sink in and process mentally, just what Amelia was telling me. But once it did, I finally got it. I was certainly not what you would call squeamish, but _this_ entire conversation, it was _far too much_ for me.

"But isn't there some way that we could delay it?" I asked, my voice hoarse with degrading desperation. "Your a witch, right? Isn't there some kind of a... uh, spell to delay it? Can't you delay it until she's twenty or until she at least fully... comprehends?"

"I _wish_ there was a spell that existed that would take away all the pain and anguish of PMS, I _really_ do. But unfortunately, there's nada. There's nothing we can do but prepare her. No endless amount of wishing it away is gonna delay it." Amelia checked the time on her watch before thrusting the light, pink package into my hands forcefully. "Well, it's eight o'clock, and you know what that means. Babysitting duties are over for the evening."

She threw me one last sympathetic look while grabbing her car keys and her belongings. "Don't worry. I know it sounds... scary and hard now, but it will work out fine. Besides, you and Pam are doing great, man! Sookie never stops blabbering about you! She's like an obsessed school girl with a crush, so take that as an encouraging sign!"

She vanished out the front door before I could even so much as get another word in.

But that was the way things were done; Amelia would stay to get Sookie settled, having a full-time job during the daylight hours. Then instance either Pam or myself got in, she would be clocking off. It was nothing unusual. I just wish she hadn't left me alone while holding a pack of- what did she call it? Sanitary napkins?

I sighed heavily while glancing down at the ancient package I still held between my fingers.

"Napkins," I repeated slowly to myself. "I thought humans use these to wipe their faces after they eat?" Out of mere curiosity and nothing more, I flipped it over, reading the back on the packaging. "Light to medium flow absorbency. Provides a soft-cotton feeling... fragrance free. Wings for maximum anti-leakage protection."

My stomach churned in disgust at what it said on the back of the packaging alone in little words. Reading it had not soothed my nerves any. How the fuck was I going to handle this? Sookie had _only_ turned twelve. I was _so not_ ready for this. Why couldn't she just stay the way she was forever?

Then I split the bag open at the side, wanting to see what one of these "napkins" looked like. Okay, so I was more than just a minuscule bit fascinated and revolted in equal measures. I got good grip with my left fang at the corner, prying the plastic apart before taking the napkin out. It had what looked like plastic tape on the folded outside part and when I opened it completely, it just only served to make me feel more unhinged.

 _Why does it look like a diaper that a baby wears yet... slimmer and more padded?_

I brought it up to my nose, sniffing, intrigued. At least they weren't being misleading on their packaging. "Fragrance free, indeed," I said under my breath.

"What's fragrance free?" Sookie's chirpy Southern twang of a voice came from behind me, startling me. Usually no one could manage to slip behind my back to startle me, yet somehow, miraculously, Sookie had managed it.

I flung the open sanitary napkin and its wrapper onto the table, spinning around to look down at her. It was disturbing how quickly she had seemed to grow since we found her and had chose to keep her two years ago; Already, she was tall enough that she reached just slightly above my elbows. She was thinner and all knees and elbows, a bit like a boy.

She had really become Pam's little mini-me, minus the filthy mouth and bad attitude over the two years. She had let Pam put foils in her hair and do her fingernails and toenails. I was assuming that was natural for little girl's. Well, I _hoped_ it was.

"What's fragrance free?" she said again impatiently, swinging her arms around.

"The _house_ ," I said quickly. There was no way I was going to dare speak to her about sanitary napkins, not until it was completely necessary. "The house is... fragrance free."

She scrunched up her nose at me in confusion, before stomping her right foot. "Well, are you gonna read to me my bedtime story or not? It's _already_ past eight and I gotta go to bed in half an hour!"

 _Kids. They really do say it like they mean it._

"Har du borsta tänderna?" I asked, secretly testing her. Amelia had said her Swedish had improved, yet I still wasn't entirely sure.

"Yes, I _did_ brush my teeth already. Now let's go read about Harry!"

"Fine," I growled under my breath in annoyance. "Let's go read about Harry Potter and his boring adventures for the hundredth time in a row." She flashed a grin at me, showing me a missing tooth, before she turned and ran upstairs into her bedroom excitedly. It was such a shame that miniature humans couldn't tell when you were using sarcasm.

If I had to read _one_ more time about the troll in the girl's bathrooms and how Harry and his red-haired friend defended their fuzzy-haired friend, I would be begging for an early true death.

"Oh, I forgot," I heard Sookie call loudly from upstairs just as I was dragging my feet halfway up them. "I'll have my glass of milk in here, please!"

I backtracked, stepping back down the stairs towards the kitchen. I didn't realize until recently just how demanding children could be; I often felt like a servant or a slave to Sookie lately. Were little humans always this manipulative and bossy? I wondered while grabbing the carton of milk out of the fridge. Or was it just Sookie?

Then again, I did nothing to discourage. If anything, I perversely enjoyed the way she bossed me around, like she was my master. I would feel incompetent and useless otherwise. At least she told me what she wanted, instead of making me play the guessing game.

I wasn't even thinking of what I was doing, not really.

I poured her milk into a glass, then next thing I knew, my wrist was stuffed in my mouth, my fangs piercing into my skin. Then I held my bleeding wrist towards her glass of milk, opening and closing my fingers to get a decent amount of flow happening. A few quarts of blood dribbled into the glass of her milk and then I got out a spoon, trying to stir and blend it in so it wouldn't be as obvious to her.

All right, so who the fuck was I kidding? It was intentional. I had thought about it a lot recently, in slipping some of my blood into Sookie. Not for any malicious intentions, of course. I would never harm her or bring harm to her intentionally. It just would make it easier to trace where she was, at all times. I could sense her that way, ensuring that she truly was safe.

There would be side-effects, of course, but she would deal with it just fine.

When I got upstairs, carrying her glass of milk, it was difficult to find a good enough excuse as to the redness. The milk was red from the decent amount of blood I got into it, and I wasn't entirely sure what she would think. No good enough excuse would seem to come to me from at the top of my head, yet when I entered her excessively girly room to find her already tucked into bed, waiting eagerly with her book open from where we had last left off, I realized no quickly thought of excuse was needed. Sookie made a plausible one up for me.

"Yummy," she said, bouncing around as she outstretched her hand happily. "Strawberry milk!"

"Er, that's right," I said, though I couldn't help feeling uncharacteristically guilty. "Strawberry milk for Sookie."

Just as usual, I stretched out on her bed beside her before handing Sookie the glass of milk carefully. I tried not to watch her when I saw her bring it to her lips because looking at her suddenly became too hard on me.

But this was our comfy, little routine; Our routine of late, was reading.

It was hard to stick to a regular and reasonable time of reading at the same hour during the night, because I was basically nocturnal until the daylight hours, but we managed. And, for reasons beyond me, I actually enjoyed it. Not reading dull Harry Potter repetitively, of course, but spending time with her was nice. It was nice to drop the act, so to speak. To show a little playfulness and vulnerability to a little girl.

I actually enjoyed spending time with Sookie- or having her read to me, vise versa.

I thought I read on Google when I was in my office that it was excellent for a child's vocabulary if you read to them and they read to you. Apparently it helped expand their vocabulary or some shit like that.

Google became my savor for the past two years. While Pam was a woman and, no doubt, she was knowledgeable by experience on what little girls went through, it was less of an ego-crusher if I could just read about it online rather than having to ask foolish and embarrassing questions to my progeny.

"Tastes funny," Sookie said, smacking her lips together. "It don't taste like strawberry milk at all?"

I had to suppress the urge to laugh when I looked at her. "Oh, no. Really?"

"It doesn't taste like strawberry?" She cringed. "Just tastes like... plain milk and something else?"

"How strange." _Oh, yes. It most certainly is something else, all right. That something else is my blood, my very essence, Sookie. Enjoy._ "It said strawberry milk on the carton?"

I felt an awful surge of pride when she shrugged it off, drinking it all down quickly. She grinned at me proudly, showing a few red stains on her teeth, then she reached over to place the empty glass on her table, slinking down under the sheets more while she opened up her book.

 _Fuck, I was so terrible. Ah, well._

I only did it simply because I need to protect her, that's all. The world is a dangerous, unsafe place. It was my duty ever since I had taken on the role as her... I don't know what to call myself. I wouldn't exactly consider myself her father. Her protector, perhaps. Her... parental role or figure, whatever its called.

But what she doesn't know won't hurt her, will it? It was just a little lie, nothing important.

She started reading the next chapter in her book, yet I could sense she was distracted for some reason. She seemed strangely... fidgety and her face was red tonight. "Um, who do you like better?" she asked, sort of shyly. "Harry or Niall?"

"Niall?" I repeated in confusion, reaching over to flick the hardcover of her book with my fingernail. "I didn't realize there was a character called Niall in Harry Potter?" We had been reading it over four times now. Surely I would have remembered a character called Niall, wouldn't I have? While I was a thousand years old, I didn't think my mind was affected. I was not senile and I did not forget things usually.

"No, not in Harry Potter, silly." She squirmed, smiling in a strange, flustered way. "But in One Direction?"

 _One Direction? What the hell was she talking about? Then again, I did not speak twelve year old. Who could blame me for not understanding?_

"What's One Direction?" I asked, squinting at her.

"You _know_ , the band..."

"The band? I... I can't say I understand?"

"You don't know who One Direction is?" She said it like it was _so_ outrageous. "How can you _not_ know who they are? Anyway, in my opinion, I... I think I like Harry the most."

Still, I had no idea in the slightest just what she was prattling on about. I played along though. "Why this Harry person?"

She giggled, blushing fervently. "He's so... so _cute_." The way she said it made me feel funny. Disturbingly funny. I certainly was not expecting her to think any men were cute, especially not at her young age. Who the fuck was this Harry guy? And One Direction? Not possible. _Two_ directions, more like it. Left and right. "Amelia and I were listening to their music while I helped her cook dinner tonight! His voice is _the bestest_ out of the bunch and he's got long hair!" Hmm, sounds like a girl.

"Okay," I said awkwardly, only because I still couldn't comprehend just what it was she was talking about. I also didn't like how I was feeling. Maybe it was a bad idea sneaking some of my blood into her after all?

"Pam's not your wife, is she?" she asked uncertainly.

"No, Sookie. Pam most definitely is not my wife. She's my progeny, but I've already told you that. Remember?"

"Well, that's good."

"Oh? Why is it good?"

"Because yesterday, when Pam came over, I walked in on her and Amelia." Her voice was running a mile a minute. "Their faces were close together."

 _Close together?_

"I think maybe they were kissing," she went on in a hushed little voice with a small, anxious laugh. "I didn't know two women did that to each other? Kissing?"

 _Well, well._ So Pam had hit it off quite well with the babysitter. I had suspected as much; Recently, I had felt something was going on between the pair of them. And Amelia did seem a little... masculine at times, though there was nothing wrong with that.

"So Amelia's a lesbian or bisexual," I muttered, forgetting just who I was talking to. "It explains everything then."

"What's a lesbian?"

There was no escaping the fact that Pam and I were no doubt going to be rather liberal when raising Sookie. I had been alive for so long that nothing seemed to surprise me anymore, as far as where sexual proclivities were concerned. I felt no harm in her knowing. "It means that she likes women. It was probably why you saw her with Pam. Pam's a... a sort of lesbian also."

Sookie stared at me, tilting her head to the side. "Am _I_ a lesbian?"

"Well, it's a little too early to tell. But if you _do_ end up being one, good for you. Pam and I will be supportive over whatever you end up being in life." _So long as you don't end up a stripper that has countless humans ogling your body or bring too many boys home, of course. I may be all for liberal parenting, but it has its limits._

 **Hope you enjoyed this one? As usual, its very silly and I apologize. I hope it offers you some amusement at least :-) Hope you are all well and happy! X**


	9. Chapter 9

**I own nothing to do with True Blood of course or SVM. Just a fan messing with the characters :-)**

 **Thank you guys so much for being so kind! Hoping you enjoy this one LOL**

* * *

 **Chapter 9**

I was starting to regret my impulsive decision on slipping Sookie some of my blood into her. Not only could I trace where she was at all times if anything terrible fell onto her, but also, I could sense her emotions, at all times.

I ought to have known in advance that twelve-year-old's were bound to be dramatic and theatrical, with their emotions fluctuating from one extreme to the other. The evenings were worst, when I was stuck in Fangtasia, sitting in my chair, trying to entertain the vermin we got in here. I felt everything so broadly, so intense. Excitement, despair. Confusion. And that was all in the time frame of a mere one hour sitting.

It was a sheer relief once I could get into my office for some alone time. I started feeling like an overemotional tween.

First thing I did, was open up my laptop and go into Google. Google seemed to be a nifty, helpful tool to use over the years. I looked up this human Sookie had mentioned she was so interested in, first of all. This Harry from One Direction. I was unimpressed by the results, honestly.

Personally I couldn't see what she saw in him or what such the appeal was. He was like a grungy man boy.

"Asshole," I grumbled through clenched teeth to the enlarged picture I had of this Harry on the screen. "Stay away from Sookie."

It was hugely irrational, how I was being, and I knew it.

But the fact that Sookie already had developed a childish crush on someone, it made me feel... strange. Uncomfortable. Sookie should still be too concerned with drawing and childish things, not registering how "cute" she found someone of the opposite sex.

I just was not expecting for a child so young to already think of men in that way; to deem them cute, like she had. Besides, he was _far_ too old for her. If somehow, miraculously, I had met him in a dark and secluded alleyway somewhere, he would not like what I would have done to him.

There would have been pain, and plenty of it. And ball crunching. Tearing off his balls like Uncle Barty if he so much as even got the faintest idea of touching her. Yes, it was _most definitely_ an irrational reaction; It was unrealistic that Sookie shall ever meet him and date him anyway. She was only twelve, way below his age. With more thorough research, I learned that he resided in England so, fortunately, the odds of Sookie and him ever dating were pleasurably slim.

When I clicked the cross button on the top of the page to close the image, I had a sudden sharp shooting pain pass through my stomach which made me straighten up in my chair with a low hiss through my teeth. It was not my pain, of course; No, I had well identified by now that it most definitely was Sookie's. I felt that same grating pain hourly or so, which was another reason I was beginning to regret sneaking in some of my blood into Sookie's system.

Perhaps Amelia was correct in what she had said last night to me, as far as the pains Sookie was feeling were concerned?

Aunt Flow was impending. Or the... Red Sea. Sookie's own personal doom.

I opened up another page, typing in, _'What happens when girls get periods?'_

Apparently, a first period signaled a girl's growing up into womanhood and that her body was preparing itself to have a baby... Blood and tissues leave the body through the vagina... 2 teaspoons of blood lost on estimate.

I suppose I should have known all about this already. I loved women; I knew all the various ways to pleasure them, and I had been told on many occasions on what an attentive, passionate lover I was. But just because I knew how to play with the strings of their body to offer maximum pleasure and sexual gratification, it didn't mean I asked them about their periods though or any gruesome shit like that. Until we had Sookie, it wasn't something I needed to know.

There was this other confusing shit about eggs and fertilization, which I couldn't understand. The entire process of menarche was weird. I just hoped to the Gods that she would get it while Amelia was home. Or Pam, at the very least. Pam had been a woman and surely she knew all about this type of thing, even better than I ever would. I was not sure I could handle having to explain to her what was happening to her, not when I could not even understand it myself.

It would be traumatic. For the _both_ of us.

But, as always, things do not turn out the way you desire them to. Lady luck was not on my side.

I had this gut feeling, this... deep intuition that tonight was the night.

When I dropped into the house to check on Sookie, Amelia the babysitter was already packing her things as usual, ready to leave now that it was eight o'clock in the evening.

"Hey, man," she greeted me once I got in. "Sookie's upstairs in the bathroom brushing her teeth ready for bed, like usual. Everything went fine tonight and she ate all her dinner, so you don't need to worry about feeding her. She's a good girl."

Her reassurances that Sookie had been a good girl did not appease me. It was happening tonight, and evidently she could not sense that for herself.

"Has Sookie been complaining about her stomach pains again?" I asked with dread. I had felt her distress and pain constantly ever since waking.

"Um, yeah actually, she has. It's been happening a lot more than it usually does. She got a bit teary-eyed before, fearing that something was seriously abnormal with her. I had to hug her and reassure her that she was fine and that what was happening was perfectly normal."

"Did you tell her about what's likely to be happening?" I asked, spluttering over the words. A great big burst of hope spread within me.

"Well, I had to. I had no other choice, so you're off the hook there." I felt my entire body sag in relief. _Thank fuck._ I would not have to have the dreaded conversation about menarche with Sookie after all. "She didn't fully understand, but I just... I told her the basics. That those pains were normal and healthy for a growing girl, and that she could expect to start getting her menstrual cycle very soon."

"And so how did she react to that?"

"Like any girl does," Amelia said with a laugh and a sympathetic smile. "She was confused, like all girls get when it comes to their first times. I'm leaving now, but... I'm assuming you know what to do, right?"

I didn't know what to do. _Not at all_.

"If she notices anything, er, _amiss_ down there, just hand her one of those sanitary napkins I got for you yesterday, all right?" It helped to have her guidance because already, I felt as if I could not think straight. My head was everywhere, and I felt on the verge of a panic attack.

"Right." I nodded once, feeling as though I could breathe a little easier. "Hand her a napkin."

"And if she's confused on how to put it on, just show her." I must have looked frightened at the idea of showing Sookie where to put her napkin, because Amelia laughed. "Relax, it's real easy. You just take off the sticky backing and attach it to the inside of the underwear." She gave me a stern look, holding up a hand near my face. " _Not_ on the outside because... you know, it won't absorb the blood and it will just end up being one huge and big gory mess to clean up."

"On the _inside_ of her underwear," I repeated, cringing. " _Not_ the outside. I think I get it."

"Awesome then. Good luck with it all."

She left me standing in the kitchen, and I had to fight the very tempting urge to call her back inside out of sheer desperation and fear so that she could deal with this issue of Sookie's instead. She would be far more adept at this than I was. But by the time I went to open the door, it was already far too late and her car had already pulled back out onto the road.

It was then I heard the wail. It was loud and panicked and, instinctively, my fangs ran down and I went into immediate protector mode.

 _Someone was hurting Sookie inside the house. Probably even that Harry fucker she liked so much._

I sped upstairs in a flash, following where the noise had come from. "Stay back from Sookie," I yelled through my fangs, spittle flying everywhere.

Yet, when I located Sookie, she was alone. She was crouched on the floor near the toilet, both arms wrapped around her stomach as she shook and sobbed. Her pajama bottoms were tangled around her feet, but as far as I could see, her underwear was on. As I took a cursory inspection around the bathroom, I saw that there was no attackers. No man boy called Harry from that ridiculous band she liked. There was just... Sookie.

"It's happening," she said, lifting her head to look at me in a tearful, desperate way. "It's _finally_ happening."

My mouth opened and closed foolishly, the adrenaline slowly waning out of my body. "What's happening?" By fault of mine, I breathed through my nostrils unnecessarily. I smelled something stale rising from in her general direction, tainting her natural scent, and it was not at all pleasant.

"It's here," she cried loudly, and then she bent down, tucking her chin in against her chest. "I think I'm hemorrhaging or something?"

"Hemorrhaging?"

"There's... _blood_." She peered down at the spot near her lap where the blood was originating from, and the crying started again, even louder and more piercing.

"Oh, I... I don't think you're hemorrhaging, Sookie. I don't think that's it. Didn't Amelia just tell you?" She definitely had said that she had, so why was Sookie reacting so petrified the way she was?

"My period?" She looked up at me, bewildered. "I got my period?"

"Yes. I... I _think_ it's your period?"

"So what do I do?" Sookie looked back down into her lap, her hands flailing about around her knees. "It won't stop?"

It was then that I realized what I had to do now. Sanitary napkins.

"Wait here," I said, trying to sound as calm as possible.

If I didn't show how afraid I was as well- or well, not on the outside at least- it would all be fine. She wouldn't panic then. I raced back downstairs, grabbing one of the napkins. When I got back upstairs, Sookie was still in the same place as she was, huddled on the bathroom floor.

I trod towards her cautiously, holding the napkin down at her. "Here you go." She didn't take it from me; She simply stared at it, her head tilted in confusion. "You put it in your underwear and it'll... er, absorb the blood."

She took it from me then, opening it up from its folded position. She appeared just as perplexed and confused as I had felt yesterday when first seeing the foreign thing.

"How?" she asked tremulously, inspecting the sticky bits on the sides as well as the backing. "How am I meant to know how it goes on?"

"Inside your underwear." I could not believe I was even having this conversation; I certainly never anticipated myself explaining how to place a sanitary napkin in underwear to a human.

She finally brought herself to stand slowly, her hands shaking. I quickly turned around to face the wall when I saw her move to slide her underwear down. "But _where_?"

"Doesn't it fit into your underwear? I think I saw on the packaging a demonstration. You... you take the sticky stuff off the back and stick it in line with your underwear."

It took a few trials and errors until we got it right, but we got there. Well, _Sookie_ did. Once she was done, I turned around while she finished pulling up her pajama bottoms. When she finally met my eyes, the way she looked almost crushed me. She looked so... desolate, so confused. Her eyes alone were saying to me, _What is the meaning of this? Why would someone be so cruel to make this happen to me when I'm just a tiny human? Did I really deserve this?_

"Now what?" she demanded, lifting up a hand to rub around her eyes tragically. "What do I gotta do now?"

What does she have to do now? Hmm, well, that was a _very_ good question. What _did_ we do now?

Now? I felt like saying to her. Now, we put you back out onto the street so I won't have to deal with complicated womanly shit like this ever again. Goodbye, little girl.

Yet, that was an incredibly selfish way of thinking. We had been looking after Sookie for over two years now. It was a little too late to bail out now, no matter how satisfying it would have felt to do so.

"I don't know just what it is that we are supposed to do now, Sookie," I said to her glumly. "I think all we can do is get you into bed and carry on like how its always been. Did you brush your teeth?"

"Yes."

"Then come on, shorty. Let's go." I waved her into the direction of her bedroom with my arm, careful to keep my distance.

To be honest, I felt as though I didn't want to be anywhere near her for some reason, as though she was carrying an infectious disease that I had no particular desire to catch.

It didn't seem real and I felt disappointed. Great, so it finally happened. Sookie was apparently into her womanhood now and was ready to have babies- according to her body. And now that it had happened, I felt as though I no longer wanted to have anything to do with her which was probably... mean of me.

It was just the smell. It lingered, and it was everywhere. The scent of stale blood.

I pulled back the sheets of her bed, patiently waiting for her to climb in. Once she did, I pulled them back over her, tucking her in. I didn't feel as though I wanted to read to her tonight. Honestly, I felt as though I wanted to just leave.

I wanted nothing more than to retreat, to make a hasty flight through the window as a way to end this disastrously awkward moment.

I wanted to be all like, " _Well,_ th _ere you go, kiddo,_ " and be done with this. But no, Sookie couldn't have that. She couldn't make it easy on me. Of course, she _just had_ to ask her questions and make me elaborate, like she believed I was an expert and that I knew firsthand about having a menstrual cycle.

I was about to leave turn off her lamp and shut her bedroom door when her voice called me back.

"It... it really hurts," Sookie whispered, with a sad little sniffle. She clutched her hands tightly over where her stomach would be under the blanket. "It feels like there's something moving in my stomach?"

I found I could not quite look at her. I stared down at the tip of my shoes instead, avoiding her. "I... I know, Sookie," I said unthinkingly. "It hurts me too." I mean, what the fuck else was I supposed to say?

"Really?" When I forced myself to look at her, I saw that her eyes had widened as she scrunched her nose up at me. "Boys get their periods too?"

It was in a time like this that I felt truly pissed off with Pam. Why couldn't she have been here instead of me? I had half a mind to call on her and force her to intervene, to make her suffer in all the ways that I was now suffering with having this difficult and unbearable conversation.

"Uh, no, Sookie. Boys don't get their periods. But I... I bleed, too."

"Through your vagina?"

I coughed out loud to hide my shock at her saying such a thing. I didn't even think she knew what certain body parts were, certainly not at her young age. "Uh, no. I... Men don't have vaginas, but I _do_ get the bleeds."

"Whats the bleeds? Like a period?"

"Not... exactly." _Jesus, this was insufferable_. "But when a vampire stays up too long during the daylight hours, they bleed. Through their ears and... other various orifices."

"You don't like me anymore, do you?" she said softly in sadness, and it made me stunned witless, what she asked of me. "You wanna leave and go back to the bar so you don't have to be near me, don't you?" I never counted her on being that perceptive.

I didn't know what to say. I shifted around with my shoes on the carpet, trying to work out what the appropriate thing to say was to this question.

While I knew undertaking this wouldn't be easy, it was far more difficult than I had counted on it being- in taking care of a child. I had grown used to closing myself off and shutting off my emotions to the outer-world, yet you couldn't do that with a child in the equation.

No, they were sensitive and they required you to be a little vulnerable and to express how you were feeling _at all_ times, otherwise they assumed _they_ were the ones who had done something wrong personally.

" _Of course_ I _still_ like you," I said, breathless with unnerved laughter, stunned by her quick assumption. "I just admit that this is... overwhelming on me. I've been around for an extremely long time and I can honestly say that _this,_ having to deal _with this_ , it... isn't something I've had to do before."

Something close resembling melancholy spread throughout me, though I was not sure whether that emotion belonged to me or whether it was entirely Sookie's own.

She sat up, dragging her knees up to her chest in the blankets, covering her hands over her face. I had no idea what was happening until I heard the sounds she was making, the way her small back shook. She was crying. Obviously I had put my foot into it for the hundredth time and said something wrong.

"You're gonna send me back to Granny now, aren't you?" she wailed into her fingers quietly. "I don't wanna go! I'm _sorry_ I got my period!"

 _Jesus Christ._ It never ceased to astound me how easily she could cry. She had done it a lot over the two years of having her. She came to the wrong conclusions easily, assuming we were going to send her back all the time when we weren't. I certainly hadn't meant it like that, that I was intending to send her back to her Grandmother simply because I found the changes she was going through overwhelming.

I sighed loudly, stepping closer to her bed. Then I sat on the edge of it, watching her helplessly for a few minutes while she kept sobbing. Even after two years, I was pitifully pathetic at this. I did not know how to console a crying and distressed child and showing physical affection was not something I particularly enjoyed.

My maker had taught me that to show both emotions and to rely on the physical affections of another for comfort was weak and self-indulgent. Clearly things were different with children, because they needed those little hugs or reaffirmations that they were wanted and needed. Well, that was the way it seemed with Sookie.

"You don't need to cry, Sookie," I muttered, reaching out tentatively to ruffle her hair on the top of her head. "And we're not going to send you back to her if you don't want to go back. _Unfortunately_ you're stuck with us."

I figured it was the right thing to say when she lifted her head out from her hands slowly, peering over at me, tears trickling slowly down her cheeks.

"You're just... emotional and stressed," I went on, ruffling her hair with my palm again. "In all things considered, this _is_ a stressful time. _I'm_ stressed out, too." Her eyebrows arched at me doubtfully. "Yes. Believe it or not, I'm stressed and scared shitless. Perhaps even more so than _you_ are."

Though we had hugged quite a few times over the years, it still alarmed me when she suddenly jerked the covers down, crawling up on her knees towards me to throw her arms around me, thrusting her warm chin under the neck of my leather jacket into my skin. I was not used to this, but I did feel as though I was getting slightly better at it.

I no longer cringed or hesitated. Enfolding my arms around her and squeezing her came quite naturally to me now. So did hushing her.

"Ssh, everything is fine," I mumbled into her shoulder, reaching up to stroke her hair. I shut off breathing entirely, because the smell emulating from her became quickly too much with close contact. She didn't smell the same anymore, like a little girl, and it was off-putting.

And, _hopefully_ , everything would be fine.

"I love you," I thought I heard her say softly, shyly, into my jacket.

She might as well have smacked me in the face instead of telling me that. It was the very last thing I was expecting her to say. Pretending to be deaf because I did not feel as though I was ready enough to say it back yet, I just said, "I'm very fond of you, too."

But she was a woman now. She could have babies. That, was difficult to swallow most of all, with how quickly she was growing.

 **Sorry if its annoying if I write Eric extra clueless. I know that he would have known about periods when living in village in viking age and what happens to women, and that he would have interacted with children, etc, but the way I see it in this story, he's been alive for a thousand years and his memory of his human life isn't very good.**

 **He's lived a long time where its just him and Pam, and he's rather out of touch with his emotions which looking after a little girl is making him feel them again, if that makes any sense? Not to mention that the world has changed dramatically from when he was human, with Ipods and technology and One Direction.**

 **Thank you so much for the alerts and reviews, they mean a lot to me. :)**


	10. Chapter 10

_**Thank you so much for your reviews and alerts, it means the world. Hope you enjoy this. Another time jump ;)  
**_

* * *

 _ **Chapter 10**_

 _ **(Three years later...)**_

Fifteen. Just like that, Sookie was a little girl of fifteen years old.

When I got in through the front door of the house in Baton Rouge, I could hear music blaring and thumping, with irritating bass lines vibrating through the walls from somewhere upstairs in Sookie's room.

I thought it was One Direction that Sookie was playing yet again on her music player. Or Justin Bieber. Or some other guy I didn't remember the name of. Frankly, it was hard to differentiate just who it was, because they all seemed identical to me. All were equally as annoying and whiny as the next one, only Sookie evidently felt differently.

Lately, things had changed with Sookie in a startling way. She tended to just want to remain in her room, hibernating or doing fuck knows what. Whenever I got in to head upstairs to tuck her into bed, it was baffling how red and flushed she was just by my mere asking to. We had looked after Sookie for a little over five years now, and not once during that time until recently, had she felt uneasy about me tucking her into bed and reading her a story.

When I got upstairs, taking my time as I went down the narrow hallway, I noticed her bedroom door was left wide ajar for once. Lately, Sookie had developed a habit where she locked it on me constantly, forcing me to have to wait with fake patience while she manually opened it and allowed me in herself.

I automatically assumed she knew what time it was, that it was her bedtime and that I was tucking her into bed as usual. Yet when I leaned my shoulder against the door frame of her room, peering in, expecting to catch her already in bed waiting for me, I was shocked by what I found.

Sookie was standing by her mirror, watching her reflection as she swayed back and forth to the music. Both hands were resting above her stomach, her fingers splayed as she held up the fabric on her pajama shirt so that she could watch her stomach in the mirror as she moved, I presumed. Usually Sookie wasn't so preoccupied with the way her body appeared. Well, it certainly hadn't been that way just barely over a year ago. Did things really change that fast?

For a growing girl, apparently things _did._ It was baffling.

Out of nowhere, she somehow saw me in through the mirror waiting for her slumped by the doorway. Even though the music, I heard the loud huff of annoyance she made as she stomped over to turn the dreadful racket of whining boys off on her music player abruptly.

"Oh, my gosh," she said shakily, yanking down her shirt to cover her stomach hastily. " _Why don't_ you ever knock lately? Why are you _so_ embarrassing?"

It took me a good second to get over the shock of her words. " _Embarrassing_? But I always tuck you into bed at this hour? Which book did you want me to read you tonight? Same one from before?"

"What _am_ I?" she muttered under her breath in irritation, flapping her arms heavily at her sides. "Am I still a twelve year old baby to you or something?"

 _Actually, she was._ Menstrual cycle or no menstrual cycle; Bra, or no bra, Sookie would still be that same little girl I discovered sleeping outside the back entrance of Fangtasia. It was just a pity she couldn't stay that way for ever.

She moved towards her bed, yanking down the sheets roughly with a ragged sigh through her mouth- the job I usually did for her while she went to brush her teeth. I pushed off the door frame with my shoulder, stepping closer. Now that she had done my job for me, I began to feel out of place and incompetent. Now what the fuck was I supposed to do, if not tucking down her sheets?

"Did you remember to brush your teeth?" I asked her, my voice scratchy and hoarse as I watched her start chucking her spare pillows on the floor.

She placed a hand on her hip, letting me see the roll of her eyes. "Um, yeah, I did. Just like I'm _perfectly capable_ of remembering to do it _every other single_ night of the week! God, you're _so stupid_!"

 _Jesus. When she did become such a little spoilt, insolent brat?_ It was like she woke up one morning in December last year, deciding that she despised me and everything I represented. Only positive thing that had arisen out of her harsh and temperamental treatment of me, was that her and Pamela had become closer. They were now extra close gal-pals.

It had gone that way a lot lately and, honestly, I still wasn't accustomed to it.

I had no idea whatsoever on just what it was Sookie felt I had done wrong to her personally, but lately, she'd become a little more... distant and petulant with me. And rude. Rude with her constant back-chatter. It was as if I couldn't do anything right, that I annoyed her merely by being in her presence.

She acted like I was an embarrassment to her a lot of the time, something I did not fully understand nor was prepared for.

Personally, I felt I was pretty fucking cool with this entire raising a human thing despite being clueless and inexperienced, but according to Sookie, apparently not.

It had started during the end of last year.

I had felt Sookie's distress and when I had arrived to the house to tuck her in for bed, she had urgently pleaded to talk to Pam alone. She hadn't wanted anything to do with me, which frankly, stung like hell. Ever since we first brought her in, she had mainly relied on me.

I had been the sole one that had to suffer through the whole period debacle with her, yet all of a sudden, she no longer wanted me around.

So when I had called Pam through our maker-progeny bond, as she had arrived, Sookie was literally throwing me out of her bedroom. With my advanced hearing, I had heard a few things, though I couldn't make any sense of it.

Sookie had urgently needed something that she felt only Pam could assist her with. They had left to go somewhere, and when they had returned with Sookie holding a plastic bag of something mysterious, she had completely and utterly ignored me in favor of running upstairs and locking herself up into her bedroom. I just hadn't really understood what I had done to make her feel as if I had failed her.

I mean, I'd tried my best, hadn't I?

I'd tried to get her a babysitter that I knew would be responsible and would educate her best. I tried to ensure that she wasn't without anything she wanted, indulging on her every whim because there was no point in being stingy with money.

It wasn't easy looking after a human girl, yet I'd given it my best shot, hadn't I?

"Would someone _please_ do me the great kindness of explaining to me just what the fuck is going on here?" I had asked Pam in confusion at the time. "What's wrong with Sookie?"

"Sookie and I just had to duck out for awhile to go bra shopping."

" _Bra_ shopping? Yeah, right." I had scoffed out loud in disbelief. "Sookie's _only_ fourteen, Pam. Why would she need a bra now?"

It hadn't occurred to me at the time, but I perhaps ought to have done a little more research with the whole menarche-puberty thing. Supposedly after a girl's period develops, everything else begins to develop as well. So now she needed bras and all that other weird womanly shit now.

But when I reflect on that now, I feel incredibly pleased that Sookie had wanted Pam to take her bra shopping, rather than myself. I had already suffered though it once with the entire unpleasant period thing. It was about time Pam had endured a little suffering of her own, though at the time she had seemed quite happy to offer Sookie some assistance with her bra-expertise.

It just pained me the way things had gone so sour between us so quickly. Though I prided myself on being a very headstrong and hardhearted man, that I could tolerate and endure whatever insults or names people threw at me, it hurt more profoundly when it was shot at me from the little girl I had raised since ten, of all people.

"Just go away," she grumbled at me rudely, sliding under the blankets on her bed. "I don't need your help anymore. You're so annoying!" She rolled onto her side, showing her back to me as she rested the side of her head against her pillows comfortably.

I couldn't seem to move from where I stood, I was that shocked.

 _Stupid and annoying in one day? Oh, she was definitely pushing it._

"I think _somebody_ has gotten their period this morning," I retorted back before I could help myself. "It would certainly explain why you are acting like a disrespectful, _mean_ and moody little girl."

There are a few particular things that I never learn. I've considered them codes on what not to do when raising a girl. Taunting them about their monthly periods were one of them. Do that, and you are bound to be stepping into dangerous territory. And yet, sometimes, when she really hurt me with what she was saying, I found myself doing exactly that. I never learn.

Just as I expected it would, the gasket was blown.

Sookie rolled over onto her back, glaring at me with such a hate filled look. I hadn't known she had it in her, but it made me feel six inches tall, rather than six feet.

" _Fuck_ you," she screamed at me, her voice shaking wildly. "Eat shit and die for saying that!"

I had never heard her use such foul language before, so it startled me. Then again, it was either Pamela or myself that was obviously rubbing off on her. I did try to censor what I said from time to time, but I knew that Pam was careless when it came to that.

My hands clenched into fists instinctively and I felt myself tremble all over. I felt horrified by what had come out of her mouth yet, at the same time, I felt such rage at her disobedience. _What had happened to that sweet and innocent little girl who had seemed as though she needed me? Where had that good little girl gone, the one that did as she said without complaining and would never speak so badly to me? The one who said often that she loved me?_

I handled it in the only way I knew how, which was to try and diffuse the situation.

" _What_ did you just say to me?" I muttered, pretending I hadn't heard her properly, trying to sound intimidating as I slowly stepped forward. "You _did not_ just say what I _thought_ I heard you say, did you?"

I knew from experience over the years that Sookie was a ticklish little thing, so that was exactly what I tried to use to my advantage. I brought out my fangs with an audible _snick_ , noticing the way her heart sped up and the way she tensed.

Then I vamp-sped, and she didn't even see it coming when I was on top of her on the sheets in the next instance, though I was mindful to support all of my weight onto my knees as I put them over each side of her and with my hands so I wouldn't hurt her too much by her crushing her.

"I said," she gasped through laughter, "Go eat shit and die!"

She screamed piercingly loud, thrashing her head and arms around furiously when I yanked the sheets down, finding her stomach and tickling her mercilessly with my fingers; her hands hitting every part of me she could find though unfortunately for her it presented me no feelings of pain whatsoever.

Then she started using her knees and bare feet, though they proved to be just as ineffectual.

I was trying to act all playfully menacing, assuming it would ease the situation and put us onto better ground. Sadly, I did not realize until too late, that it was only exacerbating it.

"Piss off, Eric," she yelled, elbowing me in the ribs. She was laughing breathlessly though, so I assumed my intentions had worked. "Stop, I haven't properly been to the bathroom just yet! You gotta stop before I-"

I had managed to wrap an arm around her, getting her halfway on top of me when I felt it. Something trickled from her to me, wetting through the crotch of my jeans. It felt warm, like warm water, and as I immediately halted tickling her so she could regain her breath, I noticed Sookie made a despairing groaning noise as she covered her face in her hands, going rigid and stiff. Her cheeks looked flushed and I felt her embarrassment course through me deeply, though I did not understand what was happening or why I felt so wet especially.

Then everything dramatically shifted worse again. "Oh, my god," Sookie cried out of nowhere, crawling to her feet hurriedly. When she rushed towards her dresser to get something out, I noticed with some bewilderment that there was a round dark patch in the back of her pajama bottoms. "What is wrong with you? Why _do you insist_ on embarrassing me? You're _so frigging_ dumb!"

 _Great. Diffuse the situation. Or not._

I sat up slowly onto my elbow, watching her as she scurried frantically out of the bedroom, saying a foul word to me again as she carried underwear and her other spare pair of pajama bottoms with her. I thought I even heard her crying, which made me feel like utter shit. I hadn't meant to make her cry- she was just supposed to laugh and not hate me anymore- and yet, what had I gone and done instead?

I forced myself to stand, peering down at the wet spot around my crotch, plucking it away with my fingers when it seemed to stick unpleasantly and rub against me. What the hell was going on?

Then I turned around, noticing the patch was there on her bed sheet as well. Since Sookie had reacted so embarrassed, I automatically decided to start taking off her sheets to change them with fresh ones instead. _There, I was not a complete fool like she had said. I did know how to take initiative and change the bed sheets._ By the time I'd finished and replaced them, Sookie was still hiding in the bathroom doing something.

"You can come out of hiding now, Sookie," I yelled out to her when it occurred to me that she was trying to avoid me. "I put some clean bed sheets on your bed because the old ones were wet, too. You don't exactly want to sleep in wet sheets, right?"

I heard her footsteps as she slowly approached the bedroom. It definitely seemed as though she was avoiding me for some reason.

"I don't know what I did, but I'm sorry for ruining your sheets," I went on, hoping to draw her out and coax her back into the room when I heard her hiding near the doorway. "It's never happened to me before but I... I'm sorry for wetting your sheets." I glanced back down at the damp patch at the front of my crotch in confusion. I had no fucking idea how that happened. "I'm sorry. Hope you can forgive me?" I was not even entirely certain what I was apologizing for, but Sookie was the only human I apologized to, if ever.

Finally, she reappeared, peeking into the room.

I noticed she avoided my eyes as she smiled sheepishly, looking at the clean sheets on her newly made bed. She had definitely been crying; I had become good at understanding when she had been secretly crying over the years.

"Um, it... it _wasn't_ you," she whispered, her voice barely audible.

"What?"

"It wasn't you," she said, her breath hitching as I saw her eyes look at the patch on the crotch of my jeans quickly before she glanced away. Then she rolled her eyes, sighing heavily in annoyance. "I peed myself, okay? I _told you_ I hadn't been to the bathroom properly yet, but _did_ you listen? No! You _never_ do listen, which makes you _pretty shitty_ at this and I _hate_ you!" It all came out in an angry rush. She didn't even pause to catch her breath.

Usually I did not have defeatist attitude, only it was a bit hard not to. I was a downright failure as far as raising Sookie was concerned. I could never do anything right.

"I'm _fifteen_ years old and _still_ , you wanna tuck me into bed and read me bedtime stories?"

I didn't realize she was too old for that.

"I _wish_ you wouldn't do that anymore. I'm a big girl now, _almost_ a woman! I don't need you reminding me to brush my teeth every night, either! It's _so weird_ that you still treat me like a baby!"

"Oh. All righty," I finally spoke awkwardly once it sunk in. I didn't realize it was such a problem. "So I won't read to you or tuck you into bed anymore?"

She shook her head.

"You don't want me to at all?" I asked, disappointed. Well, _I_ had certainly come to enjoy it. It saddened me a little that she no longer wanted me to read or tuck her in anymore, because it had become our routine even since she was younger; Something we did. It also brought to light the fact that obviously no matter how hard I tried to deny it, Sookie was changing. She _had_ changed and she was no longer the same girl she used to be.

"You know what would make me like you again, though?" she continued with a hopeful glint in her eyes. "Like what _really_ , really would?"

"What?" I asked eagerly, taking notice.

"Well, you could maybe allow me to have my own computer? Just so I can have a Facebook page, and all. I mean, I figure _plenty of girls_ my age have Facebook pages and their own computers?"

I was like instant putty in her hands. If she felt that having a Facebook page and her very own computer would make her feel happy, then get it, she would. I suppose it was naive of me, considering I was over a thousand years old. But because it was Sookie, who wouldn't do anything to make a child like them again?

 **Hope you found some enjoyment in this one? Sorry!**


End file.
